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[Dennis]

I got a fucking blue screen that logged me off GAF.

I hate when your PC goes down and you have to log onto all the damn sites you visit. Damn PCs.

 

[Mifune]

Dragon Age on PS3 looks really good. I've never understood all the hate the game's visuals got.

 

[KefkaTaran]

I'm always astounded by Game Informer's ability to have the worst website and video player in existence.

Well, make that second worst website after the Kotaku redesign.

I'm kind of surprised to see people having problems with the video player, but then I'm used to our old video player, which was truly godawful. Pointing our site tech dudes toward this thread, though.

 

[careful]

Dragon Age on PS3 looks really good. I've never understood all the hate the game's visuals got.

I don't know about you, but the DA2 screens so far are nothing spectacular (I'm being kind).

 

[Nirolak]

I'm kind of surprised to see people having problems with the video player, but then I'm used to our old video player, which was truly godawful. Pointing our site tech dudes toward this thread, though.

Your site also seems to slow to a crawl a lot. : (

 

[Mifune]

I don't know about you, but the DA2 screens so far are nothing spectacular (I'm being kind).

No, they're not. But to be honest, I've never really played a Bioware game for its graphics. ME2 looks good, but it's rarely stunning. I'd say the same for Dragon Age, but I don't care for the art design as much. Still, for what it is, the console port of DA isn't bad looking...well, the PS3 version anyway.

 

[KefkaTaran]

Your site also seems to slow to a crawl a lot. : (

We definitely had some rough and incredibly annoying tech problems throughout the first year of the site relaunch. We've done some MAJOR upgrades over the last few months though (including the new video player), and things are far more stable than they used to be. We had a lot of new people coming to the site for Elder Scrolls stuff last month, for example, and didn't have any slowdown or crashes.

Still work to be done, for sure, but the site's stability is improving.

On-topic: Am I the only person existing who actually liked Awakening more than Origins? I enjoyed the characters in Awakening a lot, as well as how much more tightly-plotted it was. Nothing dragged on for too long, like the Deep Roads section in Origins.

 

[Acosta]

In that combat footage it looks like WoW without any color or inspired setting.

I come with the same shit in every single DA II thread but I can't understad why it´s so damn ugly. Mass Effect looks, generally, great, DA, while not spectacular, had its moments with the tactical camera. But I have not found any single pic or real time video from DAII that I didn't consider plain ugly. Sometimes I think Bioware is trolling us with the pre-release material.

 

[Dennis]

Awakenings was far to easy.

I remember the good old days when expansion pack were more difficult than the main game because the developers correctly assumed the player had become skilled at the game and now wanted a greater challenge.

 

[Nirolak]

We definitely had some rough and incredibly annoying tech problems throughout the first year of the site relaunch. We've done some MAJOR upgrades over the last few months though (including the new video player), and things are far more stable than they used to be. We had a lot of new people coming to the site for Elder Scrolls stuff last month, for example, and didn't have any slowdown or crashes.

Still work to be done, for sure, but the site's stability is improving.

On-topic: Am I the only person existing who actually liked Awakening more than Origins? I enjoyed the characters in Awakening a lot, as well as how much more tightly-plotted it was. Nothing dragged on for too long, like the Deep Roads section in Origins.

That's good to hear, especially since you have a lot of content on there now.

Awakenings was far to easy.

I remember the good old days when expansion pack were more difficult than the main game because the developers correctly assumed the player had become skilled at the game and now wanted a greater challenge.

On that note, their senior gameplay designer was noting that they wanted to make Nightmare way more difficult this time around because people complained it was too easy last time.

 

[Mr Jared]

Yessssss.. I Anders was the best part of Awakenings.

Unlike 99% of GAF, I'm beyond hyped for this game. Even though I got all the achievements for Dragon Age I'm going to give it one last play through to get all my decisions straight.

 

[dionysus]

Looks like mages have been turned into melee characters with more sparkles on their weapons.

I saw the mage use 1 skill that entire fight, the rest looked liked button mashing or autoattacking.

 

[KefkaTaran]

Awakenings was far to easy.

I remember the good old days when expansion pack were more difficult than the main game because the developers correctly assumed the player had become skilled at the game and now wanted a greater challenge.

This is true, I'll give you that. I'd love for DLC/add-ons to be more challenging again.

 

[Dennis]

On that note, their senior gameplay designer was noting that they wanted to make Nightmare way more difficult this time around because people complained it was too easy last time.

That is good to hear.

I used mainly Mages in DA:O as I like using magic combinations etc. and it add lots of complexity to the combat to use primarily magic......however....mages were way overpowered and basically broke the game.

 

[DimmuBurgerKing]

On-topic: Am I the only person existing who actually liked Awakening more than Origins? I enjoyed the characters in Awakening a lot, as well as how much more tightly-plotted it was. Nothing dragged on for too long, like the Deep Roads section in Origins.

Agreed. And Anders returning is great news. He's pretty much everything I liked about Alistair's character, without everything that annoyed me.

 

[dionysus]

Agreed. And Anders returning is great news. He's pretty much everything I liked about Alistair's character, without everything that annoyed me.

Plot-wise awakenings was better. Had a real bad guy instead of a nameless dragon somewhere.

Gameplay wise I thought it was worse, encounters were easier and had less variation. Also, spells and abilities were even more overpowered.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

encounters were easier and had less variation.

I fail to see how that is possible.

 

[Omotesando]

Eh, looks like the 'new revamped engine' seems to be an overstatement.

 

[epmode]

That cloak texture in the OP is truly something special.

 

[K.Jack]

Game looks like dogshit. Why do I have it preordered?

 

[sam27368]

So which division of BioWare is this developed by?

They really should just release a few minutes of in depth gameplay, story and combat. This has to be the least amount of information released on an AAA game. If they're expecting it to sell on name alone that's way to cocky.

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

Demo in two weeks.

 

[yencid]

the environment in that video is not very pretty... Actually... i have not seen a single environment that looks nice so far from the videos/pictures.

 

[sam27368]

Demo in two weeks.

True, I know they've had multiple projects in development pretty much since inception and that they're a huge company but there's just something unsettling about a company working on 3 huge projects simultaneously, with such short development cycles and with such large fan bases.

Spoiler

in other words, please don't screw up ME3 BioWare

 

[Van Owen]

"Holy shit" seems a tad out of place for this universe, and fantasy in general...

 

[Slackbladder]

Nice to see the Dwarves now have the right scaled arms. Before they were far too long, basically Human arms on Dwarf bodies. Always irritated me.

 

[KefkaTaran]

So which division of BioWare is this developed by?

They really should just release a few minutes of in depth gameplay, story and combat. This has to be the least amount of information released on an AAA game. If they're expecting it to sell on name alone that's way to cocky.

I've got a feature on playing the first five hours in the new issue of GI. I imagine more in-depth previews will be coming from other sites and mags in the next month as well.

 

[Hawk269]

I know this will shock some of you more PC elite's, but can the PC version of this game be played with a Controller? I am new PC gamer after being a console gamer all my life and can't come to grips with the whole k/b & mouse controls.

 

[nexen]

What is with all the deep roads hate? Easily my favorite part of DA:O.

The further I went into the deep roads, the more I had the feeling that I was getting my party deeper and deeper into trouble.

Spoiler

Especially when I passed the Legion of the Dead's front line on the bridge

. I loved the feeling of dread it inspired.

I know this will shock some of you more PC elite's, but can the PC version of this game be played with a Controller? I am new PC gamer after being a console gamer all my life and can't come to grips with the whole k/b & mouse controls.

You are doing it wrong. Seriously though, spacebar pauses the game so you can take your time. You don't need to be fast.

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Maybe I'm just spoiled by Giant Bomb, and Game Trailers to a much lesser extent, but in today's world of iPhone web browsing I'm bummed when I can't watch web site videos on my iPhone.

I'll try to remember to check out the video on my MacBook when I get home this evening.

 

[sam27368]

I know this will shock some of you more PC elite's, but can the PC version of this game be played with a Controller? I am new PC gamer after being a console gamer all my life and can't come to grips with the whole k/b & mouse controls.

You're not in the same boat don't worry. All my PC games are played with the 360 controller. Unfortunately, BioWare don't seem to support it (although I'm unsure with DA:O). With ME1 and 2 you have to google for hacks to get it work. Stupid considering it's developed for console as well, it's just laziness.

 

[Van Owen]

Early previews said they were running the PC version with a 360 controller. Whether or not that will be the case with the final version is unknown as far as I know.

 

[water_wendi]

The game is like exactly one month from release but it doesnt feel like it at all. Feels like its still months away.

 

[lastplayed]

DX11 won't give me my elf back.

 

[soldat7]

Illusive Man cameo?

 

[momolicious]

Is the game made by the same team who made Dragon age 1? Since it looked like a spinoff

 

[Lostconfused]

Got kind of tired with putting up with the all the problems that NWN2 comes with. Think I'll fire up DA:O since I have less than a month to play through it and awakening.

 

[water_wendi]

Got kind of tired with putting up with the all the problems that NWN2 comes with. Think I'll fire up DA:O since I have less than a month to play through it and awakening.

What problems would those be?

 

[Speculator]

Yup pretty much the same team as DA1 (Mark Darrah is Exec Producer and Mike Laidlaw is lead designer)

IGN Preview with gameplay videos:
http://www.ign.com/videos/2011/02/07/dragon-age-2-video-preview?objectid=61075

New Screens

 

[Lostconfused]

What problems would those be?

Clunky user interface for the most part. Pretty much doing anything in the game is annoying. The story/character interaction is the only reason to keep going and right now my character is sitting in a dungeon. Which is the point when I always want to stop playing NWN2 because dungeons are the worst part.

 

[~Kinggi~]

Its gonna feel like the twilight zone if this game ends up being good.

 

[RustyNails]

Really? Because going by the first game, getting drenched in tainted darkspawn blood is a national past time for Ferelden, and everyone seemed pretty fine.

:lol

 

[water_wendi]

Clunky user interface for the most part. Pretty much doing anything in the game is annoying. The story/character interaction is the only reason to keep going and right now my character is sitting in a dungeon. Which is the point when I always want to stop playing NWN2 because dungeons are the worst part.

Meh, to each their own. i havent had any UI/camera issues since that patch in 2007.

 

[Lostconfused]

Meh, to each their own. i havent had any UI/camera issues since that patch in 2007.

Just because there aren't any obvious bugs doesn't mean its not cumbersome and annoying enough to drag the experience down.

 

[RyanDG]

DX11 won't give me my elf back.

Or my dwarf. I don't want to play as a stinking human. I could understand not being able to play as my grey warden specifically - because by the time his sword and board self finished the Witch Hunt he was overpowered as overpowered can be. But at least they could've let me play as a dwarf again. I understand the whole idea of a framed narrative and making Hawke 'special', but if I'm going to stare at a character's back side for 40 hours throughout a game, I want him to be stout, hairy, and full of fire in the belly. Hawke's just not doing it for me.

Blah.

With that said at least Anders is back. One of the best parts of Awakening.

 

[tokkun]

I understand the whole idea of a framed narrative and making Hawke 'special', but if I'm going to stare at a character's back side for 40 hours throughout a game, I want him to be stout, hairy, and full of fire in the belly. Hawke's just not doing it for me.

So keep a dwarf in your party and switch control to him?

 

[RyanDG]

So keep a dwarf in your party and switch control to him?

Only dwarf I've seen in the game is a rogue. I want to play with a sword and shield with the Dwarf (or shield and axe to be more specific) or a massive two handed axe. I haven't seen any other dwarves, so if there is a secret companion who will fit what I want to play, I'll definitely stop complaining about it. Until then, I'm disappointed.

 

[JaseC]

ew gross. what is that guy wearing

Shit textures.

 

[luxarific]

Is the facebook game playable? Signed up for it ages ago and have heard nothing. DA2 is only a month away, right?

 

[Reluctant-Hero]

Is the facebook game playable? Signed up for it ages ago and have heard nothing. DA2 is only a month away, right?

Yeah, I'm in the beta right now. It's okay. Definitely slanted towards a social experience.