TW2 looks better than most games out there and its not just graphics its art design.
I think it really does, mainly because they took their time with it in every respect. It wasn't compromised by development for various platforms, it wasn't rushed like most games are. Both Dragon Age games, both Mass Effect games, and three Assassins Creed games came out in the time between the Witcher 1 and 2. Time and effort has gone into this.slimgrin said:
Here's something I forgot in my earlier post
ragon Age is apparently going the Pirates of the Caribbean route.The first game/movie is great and can stand on its own easily.The second one seems misplaced with no real ending.The third is/will tie things ups in a weird way, leaving a weird aftertaste.
ragon Age is apparently going the Pirates of the Caribbean route.The first game/movie is great and can stand on its own easily.The second one seems misplaced with no real ending.The third is/will tie things ups in a weird way, leaving a weird aftertaste.I liked how the Arishok impaled me with his sword 5 times before I chopped off his head. Ten minutes of running and potion drinking, the boss battle of my life.
This game is hilariously bad, but there are ways to make it somewhat bearable:
- play as a magehater mage who always sides with the templars
- be an ass to Anders until he's super-emo
- name the dog after Gamlen
- create an ugly monster and have Fenris say "you're a beautiful woman Hawke"
- say "'ello!" like this every time you find a moth-eaten scarf
- go to the alienage and laugh at the aliens living there
etc.
This is Hawke and her companion. (S)he's strong and doesn't afraid of anything.
This game is hilariously bad, but there are ways to make it somewhat bearable:
- play as a magehater mage who always sides with the templars
- be an ass to Anders until he's super-emo
- name the dog after Gamlen
- create an ugly monster and have Fenris say "you're a beautiful woman Hawke"
- say "'ello!" like this every time you find a moth-eaten scarf
- go to the alienage and laugh at the aliens living there
etc.
This is Hawke and her companion. (S)he's strong and doesn't afraid of anything.
well dragon age 2 sucks... I only did one playthrough and then uninstalled it. It's too repeative,same places same dungeons all the time. The characters are too boring and stupid and all the male characters want to put it on your character's butt if you are a male too...There are not stable personalities they all are bisexual xD... The game is TOO linear and the combat is responsive but your character acts like a Ninja. Shame,becoz DA:O and the Expansion were good games.
Dragon Age 2 was a huge disappointment. While Dragon Age: Origins had some rough patches, some embarrassing design choices, and some bad writing here and there; it offered a great tactical and strategical combat system, that was ultimately a lot of fun to play around with. A lot of the side characters were interesting, and the voice acting was solid, but not great. Even still, it was a functional game, so I can't give it a failing grade or anything; but there are very few actually good things about it, or aspects of the game that were done well.
WHAT I LIKED THE MOST
The conversation system. One type of people I don't understand, is the type who say the dialogue options have been simplified compared to how they were in Origins. It's quite the opposite, if you ask me. Sure, the party members don't have as many lines, but Hawke has so much more dialogue than the Warden had. It's only that, just like in Mass Effect, the initial dialogue choice is incredibly short, and that alone makes it seem very dumbed-down. Anyway, what I think makes it so brilliant, is how Hawke's attributed 'default' attitude and personality, completely alters how conversations play out. Depending on if you've made Hawke into an aggressive, helpful, or humorous person, s/he will act accordingly all throughout the conversations - this includes the 'filler' dialogue options, as well as the investigative ones and the 'neutral' ones. Hawke will change the lines spoken through these options, to sound either aggressive and generally unfriendly, helpful and diplomatic, or humorous and sarcastic.
Not only that, but having an overbearing disposition to a specific personality, will also unlock unique conversation choices or actions. Renegade or Paragon interrupts, if you will, if you've played Mass Effect 2; but also the Humorous Hawke has an equivalent, in the form of spinning a tale or lying effectively, sort of adopting the sharp wit and ability to lie of Varric. Adding to this that your companions may also have their own 'interrupts,' if you have them along for certain quests or conversation, and the whole system is, I think, phenomenal. The replay value increases significantly, as it will feel like you're playing a whole new Hawke, if you change her/his personality this way.
WHAT I HATED THE MOST
The repetitive nature of the entire game. The first thing I noticed, was how every single interior type, was simply a copy/paste of any other interior of the same type. Every warehouse is identical, every cave is identical, and every place you go always ends up looking like a place you've already been. This is probably the most embarrassingly bad design decision Bioware has ever had. There's simply no excuse for employing this sort of lazy behaviour, effectively ruining one of the most important aspects of any RPG: exploration.
The second example of the repetitive nature, is the incredibly stupid and annoying and utterly idiotic enemy wave system. Every single fight in the game was so insanely predictable: A group of weaker enemies, once you kill them, a group of somewhat stronger enemies spawn out of thin air to attack you from behind or surround you; once those are dead, the group of the strongest enemies spawn in the same manner. This is not only extremely ugly, it also ruins the thing that kept Origins feeling so interesting: Strategy. It's simply impossible to set up any sort of strategy, as the first wave is just trash that dies in one hit, anyway, and then the next wave(s) will ambush you, as they materialize out of nowhere right on top of you. I hate this design more than I do the identical interiors, and whoever pitched this idea should have immediately been shot down (not figuratively), and the idea scrapped from the start. This sort of combat behaviour is only somewhat excused in pure action games, where there's not much tactical planning involved; it's entirely inexcusable to include in a game like this.
MY CONCLUSION - 5/10
All in all, the game still works. It's mediocre most of the time, and sometimes it's even a bit good, and sometimes it's really bad. The conversation system kept me playing, and parts of the story had quality. The companions ranged from good (Aveline, Varric) to ridiculous (Fenris, Isabela), but were overall a much worse cast than that of DA:O. It deserves no awards in any category - heck, it doesn't even deserve to be nominated! - and I'm actually pleased to see that the majority of players agree with me, and are outraged at how they so completely destroyed a promising franchise. I can accept DA2 as a sort of spin-off game, but I am supposed to approve of it as a sequel to the original, carrying on the story of the first game, and that just doesn't sit right with me. It makes it so much worse than it really is. I felt the same way with Bethesda's Fallout 3 - as a spin-off game in the same universe, it is quite good and deserving of some praise, but as the third game of an already-established series, it's a blasphemer, in my book.
WHAT I LIKED THE MOST
The conversation system. One type of people I don't understand, is the type who say the dialogue options have been simplified compared to how they were in Origins. It's quite the opposite, if you ask me. Sure, the party members don't have as many lines, but Hawke has so much more dialogue than the Warden had. It's only that, just like in Mass Effect, the initial dialogue choice is incredibly short, and that alone makes it seem very dumbed-down. Anyway, what I think makes it so brilliant, is how Hawke's attributed 'default' attitude and personality, completely alters how conversations play out. Depending on if you've made Hawke into an aggressive, helpful, or humorous person, s/he will act accordingly all throughout the conversations - this includes the 'filler' dialogue options, as well as the investigative ones and the 'neutral' ones. Hawke will change the lines spoken through these options, to sound either aggressive and generally unfriendly, helpful and diplomatic, or humorous and sarcastic.
Not only that, but having an overbearing disposition to a specific personality, will also unlock unique conversation choices or actions. Renegade or Paragon interrupts, if you will, if you've played Mass Effect 2; but also the Humorous Hawke has an equivalent, in the form of spinning a tale or lying effectively, sort of adopting the sharp wit and ability to lie of Varric. Adding to this that your companions may also have their own 'interrupts,' if you have them along for certain quests or conversation, and the whole system is, I think, phenomenal. The replay value increases significantly, as it will feel like you're playing a whole new Hawke, if you change her/his personality this way.
WHAT I HATED THE MOST
The repetitive nature of the entire game. The first thing I noticed, was how every single interior type, was simply a copy/paste of any other interior of the same type. Every warehouse is identical, every cave is identical, and every place you go always ends up looking like a place you've already been. This is probably the most embarrassingly bad design decision Bioware has ever had. There's simply no excuse for employing this sort of lazy behaviour, effectively ruining one of the most important aspects of any RPG: exploration.
The second example of the repetitive nature, is the incredibly stupid and annoying and utterly idiotic enemy wave system. Every single fight in the game was so insanely predictable: A group of weaker enemies, once you kill them, a group of somewhat stronger enemies spawn out of thin air to attack you from behind or surround you; once those are dead, the group of the strongest enemies spawn in the same manner. This is not only extremely ugly, it also ruins the thing that kept Origins feeling so interesting: Strategy. It's simply impossible to set up any sort of strategy, as the first wave is just trash that dies in one hit, anyway, and then the next wave(s) will ambush you, as they materialize out of nowhere right on top of you. I hate this design more than I do the identical interiors, and whoever pitched this idea should have immediately been shot down (not figuratively), and the idea scrapped from the start. This sort of combat behaviour is only somewhat excused in pure action games, where there's not much tactical planning involved; it's entirely inexcusable to include in a game like this.
MY CONCLUSION - 5/10
All in all, the game still works. It's mediocre most of the time, and sometimes it's even a bit good, and sometimes it's really bad. The conversation system kept me playing, and parts of the story had quality. The companions ranged from good (Aveline, Varric) to ridiculous (Fenris, Isabela), but were overall a much worse cast than that of DA:O. It deserves no awards in any category - heck, it doesn't even deserve to be nominated! - and I'm actually pleased to see that the majority of players agree with me, and are outraged at how they so completely destroyed a promising franchise. I can accept DA2 as a sort of spin-off game, but I am supposed to approve of it as a sequel to the original, carrying on the story of the first game, and that just doesn't sit right with me. It makes it so much worse than it really is. I felt the same way with Bethesda's Fallout 3 - as a spin-off game in the same universe, it is quite good and deserving of some praise, but as the third game of an already-established series, it's a blasphemer, in my book.
to be honest I bought DA2 like everyone else only after playing demo but after installing the game and realizing im running around like stupid in same locations doing pointless quests i uninstalled the game half way through the game! DA3 has to really step it up if they want to get my 60 bones! I would prefer to buy TW1 if you ask me!
I finally managed to get rid of my PS3 copy of DA2... Traded it for the 3 God of War games... Did I do right?
Something tells me that I could ve get smthg more out of it(it was a brand new copy), but really, having initially traded an old PC game for it, three games out of one is a pretty good deal, I think.
Something tells me that I could ve get smthg more out of it(it was a brand new copy), but really, having initially traded an old PC game for it, three games out of one is a pretty good deal, I think.
After the syrupy sweet, cutesy, patronising and moronic experience of the non existent rise to power in dragon age 2 delving into assassins of kings felt like i'd gone from the semi literate grunts of cro magnon man to verbal sparring with Socrates and the cream of athenian academia.
I found the awesome button they were rabbiting on about in all the pr and it said "uninstall".
I found the awesome button they were rabbiting on about in all the pr and it said "uninstall".
For every step DA2 took forward, it took a bunch backwards.
I preferred the UI for DA2. And I loved the Junk Category for purposes of Quickselling to Merchants and Quick-storing to your chest.
The technical aspect for DA2 - the engine just looked better and ran better, technically. Plus, I prefer the graphical art-style of DA2, since DAO looked more generic.
DA2's sped-up combat was also much more visceral than DAO.
Rogue class is way more useful and powerful in DA2 than DAO.
Unfortunately, that's where the improvements ended.
DA2 has TOO MANY repetitive-looking, copy-and-pasted, and over-visited and environments - UGH!
DA2 removed the awesome overhead tactical cam DAO had.
DA2 in combat [on Normal] is nowhere as strategic as DAO was, in most cases [except a few boss battles].
DA2 doesn't allow party customization of most equipment like DAO did.
Most items picked-up seem to be intended for Hawke.
Even then, most items intended for Hawke possibly might NOT even still be equipped to him, depending on his class.
Overhaul, DAO was a masterpiece and it shows, being in development forever. Most of its issues, were a few and very MINOR. Most of DA2's issues...they are minor, but so many of them turn it into a MAJOR issue. Despite all of this, somehow DA2 was still a good game - it's just it's nowhere as amazing as DAO. DAO is one of the best RPG's ever made, while DA2 is just a good game.
If the game features in DA2 was say put forth in a Jade Empire 2, we'd be talking about how much JE2 has improved - well, except the darn overused environments.
So far, The Witcher 2 is the best RPG this year....so far.
We'll have to wait and see, to see how Skyrim turns out...
I preferred the UI for DA2. And I loved the Junk Category for purposes of Quickselling to Merchants and Quick-storing to your chest.
The technical aspect for DA2 - the engine just looked better and ran better, technically. Plus, I prefer the graphical art-style of DA2, since DAO looked more generic.
DA2's sped-up combat was also much more visceral than DAO.
Rogue class is way more useful and powerful in DA2 than DAO.
Unfortunately, that's where the improvements ended.
DA2 has TOO MANY repetitive-looking, copy-and-pasted, and over-visited and environments - UGH!
DA2 removed the awesome overhead tactical cam DAO had.
DA2 in combat [on Normal] is nowhere as strategic as DAO was, in most cases [except a few boss battles].
DA2 doesn't allow party customization of most equipment like DAO did.
Most items picked-up seem to be intended for Hawke.
Even then, most items intended for Hawke possibly might NOT even still be equipped to him, depending on his class.
Overhaul, DAO was a masterpiece and it shows, being in development forever. Most of its issues, were a few and very MINOR. Most of DA2's issues...they are minor, but so many of them turn it into a MAJOR issue. Despite all of this, somehow DA2 was still a good game - it's just it's nowhere as amazing as DAO. DAO is one of the best RPG's ever made, while DA2 is just a good game.
If the game features in DA2 was say put forth in a Jade Empire 2, we'd be talking about how much JE2 has improved - well, except the darn overused environments.
So far, The Witcher 2 is the best RPG this year....so far.
We'll have to wait and see, to see how Skyrim turns out...
