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Dragon Age 2 demo out now

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frozentundra123456 said:
I just got my copy of PC gamer and they gave the game a 94 percent editor's choice award. They said the storyline was really good. However, I question the objectivity of their review, since they must have obviously had special co-operation from Bioware in order to have access to that much of the game before it even came out.

Definitely will not pay full price for the game, but might buy it in a year or so if a game of the year edition comes out at a decent price.
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Publisher: "Here's the game. Special early review for you guys to boost your sales. Oh, and if you want this to happen again you better give it a 85+ score. At LEAST. "

Review Site: "Yes sir. Three bags full sir"

Such a dirty industry. I don't trust the reviews anymore. Black and White...hah!
 
You have to press 'A' for every swing of your sword on the consoles. Same for every arrow, every staff projectile...etc. With the vastly sped up combat speed this actually works better than expected.

Frankly the console and PC couldn't feel more different in my opinion because of this fundamental difference with the controls. Whereas DA:O on consoles still played the same way as on PC albet with easier mobs.

I'm still not sure for which platform to buy it on, my DA:O saves are on the PC and I'm a sucker for great graphics. But considering it's unlikely much will carry over or really matter from the decisions you make in DA:O, perhaps I should get the PS3 version instead - the combat in DA2 just feels more suited to the action oriented console setup.

In other words, for DA:O there was never any doubt which platform the game was best on - it was PC and it wasn't even close. It's not as obvious (yet) with the sequel...
 
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StinkyPinky said:
Why does it matter if you have DAO saves or not? DA2 is a totally different character so you cannot import surely?
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I don't know the timeline expected in DAO2--I haven't read a damn thing about it--plus, I haven't played Awakenings, but it's possible that decisions made in DAO/Awakenings that changed a few events in certain directions should still have a lasting effect on the entire game world, regardless of whether or not your character in DAO is part of that game world in DAO2.
 
Qbah said:
Well, I really enjoyed the demo. Can't wait for the game to come out 🙂 Need to finish DA : O first though... can't bring myself to go through the dwarf underground place thing D:
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that was, by far, the most tedious part for me. I barely wanted to complete that on my first play through, and IIRC, is exactly where I stopped on the 2nd play through ,heh.
 
The choices you made in ME translating to ME2 were really neat, I have a feeling Bioware will try to recreate that somehow in DA2, whether it's from random cameo's or whatever it's hard to say. It's unlikely there'll be any real substance there but if at the very least they may give you bonuses the way that ME2 did (starting with 60k of all minerals).

Is there any word on the PC version allowing you to use a controller? Bioware is stingy about that ME1 and 2 as well as DA:O didn't support the 360 pad despite all being available on consoles...
 
Demo's grown on me as I played more. Mage is a lot of fun.

How do I get the Demo unlocks? I've logged into my account and beaten demo 3 times or so while logged in, anything else I gotta do?
 
Carmen813 said:
Demo's grown on me as I played more. Mage is a lot of fun.

How do I get the Demo unlocks? I've logged into my account and beaten demo 3 times or so while logged in, anything else I gotta do?
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Check your registered game promotions in your profile at Bioware Social Network,it should list "Hayder's Razor" for Dragon Age 2.
 
Isabela is fine as hell lulz.

Also the combat is the same, except you attack more often for less damage and therefore your swings come more quickly. I don't see what everyone's up in arms about, it's a pretty minor stylistic difference. Though I think the very sudden 'start/stop/start/stop' fluidity of the animations is kind of jarring, I'm not assuming that everything looks in the demo as it will in the final version. The textures, models, animations, and environmental depth were all a little lacking but I'd imagine this has something to do with keeping the demo download size manageable as well as playable by the 360 and more mainstream computers.

Also it was pretty clear by the abrupt transitions to the cutscenes that you were simply playing fragments of the much larger storyline involving the tale of this "Champion". I highly doubt in the game itself you'll go so quickly from "original town" (the name escapes me) to Kirkwall and the character development will surely be more in-depth.
 
darkewaffle said:
Isabela is fine as hell lulz.

Also the combat is the same, except you attack more often for less damage and therefore your swings come more quickly. I don't see what everyone's up in arms about, it's a pretty minor stylistic difference. Though I think the very sudden 'start/stop/start/stop' fluidity of the animations is kind of jarring, I'm not assuming that everything looks in the demo as it will in the final version. The textures, models, animations, and environmental depth were all a little lacking but I'd imagine this has something to do with keeping the demo download size manageable as well as playable by the 360 and more mainstream computers.

Also it was pretty clear by the abrupt transitions to the cutscenes that you were simply playing fragments of the much larger storyline involving the tale of this "Champion". I highly doubt in the game itself you'll go so quickly from "original town" (the name escapes me) to Kirkwall and the character development will surely be more in-depth.
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The problem with the combat (at least for me) is that you literally teleport around the field of battle, distance is closed way too fast and it just looks ridiculous. I can get over the rogue's backstab teleporting as that's one specific ability, but with a fighter I find myself just phasing from one enemy to the next. It looks... bad.
 
When I was playing as a rogue in the demo, I was trying to attack a hurlock that was slowly walking away from me. My guy just kept doing this flip attack where he would jump in the air on do some kind of 360, spinning his blades. The problem was that the jump wasn't far enough so he couldn't catch up to the hurlock and did this move about 10 times until the hurlock stopped walking.
 
It is if you use one of the gap closer abilities, which is pretty much their intended purpose. I don't think either way was a big deal, but I definitely remember getting annoyed at chasing enemies around in DA. Like fighting the harvester at the end of the Amgarrak DLC? Pain in the ass, but only because I spent half the fight walking towards him.
 
darkewaffle said:
It is if you use one of the gap closer abilities, which is pretty much their intended purpose. I don't think either way was a big deal, but I definitely remember getting annoyed at chasing enemies around in DA. Like fighting the harvester at the end of the Amgarrak DLC? Pain in the ass, but only because I spent half the fight walking towards him.
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From what I've read, this is exactly what the devs were trying to correct. If you used an ability outside of its range in Origins, your character would often awkwardly shamble in the direction of the target and sometimes never actually get the ability off (at least for melee characters). It may not be the best alternative, but I don't see it as game-breaking either.
 
it was okay.

i love the mass effect environment more.

sci fi trumps medievil fantasy where everyone speaks like britons


the camera was stupid...control camera AND attack with the same button???? why couldn't they have just copied Mass Effect1/2's scheme...far more efficient.

Felt kinda MMOish...like a WOW character that doesn't have many skills - Right click, watch the auto attack, and then spam one of your skills. Worked great in the beginning of the demo when you had everything to sample, worked horribly at the end of the demo when you were restricted.....i even started to think "well if this was an MMO atleast I could chat with the others". I then took it a step further in my thought process and thought "no wonder I prefer to play a healer....dps is so boring"

Graphics were nice. The game has a LOT of bugs if you try to play in portrait mode. Not scaling to the resolution properly and cutting things off the screen, textures that go in and out as camera angle changes, incomplete meshing of textures, REALLY bad performance (i initially thought 2xgx460 was not enough for the game, but then i realized it was actually the game after i switched to landscape mode).

might buy it... at least its better than DAO where the unpolished graphics was just a huge turn off. didn't play more than 1-2 hours in that game.... doesn't mean it has to be super high res with the best graphics in the world, it just means that it should be polished. chrono trigger was polished, ff6 was polished, ff12 was polished, pharaoh was polished, grandia 2 was polished, secret of monkey island (both og and special edition) was polished......DAO was not.

just release ME3 already.
 
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Of the classes I am digging the Mage most so far. Seems like the swiss army knife. Throwing a fireball here, a heal there, and hopefully freezing opponents. Next was the rogue, and last was the Warrior. Guessing I will just have Aveline tank it up when the game is released.

coldmeat said:
When I was playing as a rogue in the demo, I was trying to attack a hurlock that was slowly walking away from me. My guy just kept doing this flip attack where he would jump in the air on do some kind of 360, spinning his blades. The problem was that the jump wasn't far enough so he couldn't catch up to the hurlock and did this move about 10 times until the hurlock stopped walking.
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I got this too. Felt very acrobatic.
 
darkewaffle said:
Isabela is fine as hell lulz.

Also the combat is the same, except you attack more often for less damage and therefore your swings come more quickly. I don't see what everyone's up in arms about, it's a pretty minor stylistic difference. Though I think the very sudden 'start/stop/start/stop' fluidity of the animations is kind of jarring, I'm not assuming that everything looks in the demo as it will in the final version. The textures, models, animations, and environmental depth were all a little lacking but I'd imagine this has something to do with keeping the demo download size manageable as well as playable by the 360 and more mainstream computers.
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It's a demo, not beta. I don't think the gameplay and graphics are going to change.

Also it was pretty clear by the abrupt transitions to the cutscenes that you were simply playing fragments of the much larger storyline involving the tale of this "Champion". I highly doubt in the game itself you'll go so quickly from "original town" (the name escapes me) to Kirkwall and the character development will surely be more in-depth.
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Yeah that was pretty obvious just looking at the level and skills you get with the jumps.
 
Playing as a mage was a lot more fun than a warrior. And this from a guy that always plays a warrior first

I think I'll play a mage in the full game.
 
Mem said:
Mage is nearly always more fun then warrior in most RPGs.
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Not for me. I usually prefer Warrior type of guys. In Baldur's Gate 2/Dragon Age etc I loved playing Warrior class goons.

But in DA2 the warrior kinda seems ridiculous. Swooping around like a jedi knight. Whereas a mage seems godlike. Dropping fire bombs and fireballs every 10 seconds or so. I like the magic in this game.
 
StinkyPinky said:
Not for me. I usually prefer Warrior type of guys. In Baldur's Gate 2/Dragon Age etc I loved playing Warrior class goons.

But in DA2 the warrior kinda seems ridiculous. Swooping around like a jedi knight. Whereas a mage seems godlike. Dropping fire bombs and fireballs every 10 seconds or so. I like the magic in this game.
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I think they did that for a reason,ie the gameplay is faster in combat ,so looks like they are trying to make it more exciting for the gamer ,you can argue it makes the warrior class a bit unrealistic,however it does not really matter being its only a game.
 
Mem said:
I think they did that for a reason,ie the gameplay is faster in combat ,so looks like they are trying to make it more exciting for the gamer ,you can argue it makes the warrior class a bit unrealistic,however it does not really matter being its only a game.
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I have to be honest. I like this implementation much better than the last game where my warriors were just so slow to get to their targets at times. It was a little annoying.
 
I too prefer warriors, I almost always go 2H swordsmen because I love the huge critical hits and the inevitable 2H sweep attacks. Just so much fun, plus you get the sweet armor...etc.

But in this game warriors are kind of a mess - the guy swings much too quickly so that it looks ridiculous, and needing 4-5 hits to kill a lowly hurlock is just a real joykill. Mage is probably what I'll start with too, plus that actually might be the default class considering all the promo's to the game appear to show Hawke with a Mage staff in his hand...
 
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