So Dragon Age 2 is really bad on the PC and consolized?

[skace]

Since when is Bioware trending downward? They make one merely decent game and people are up in arms. I'm not worried about ME3 at all.

They certainly aren't trending upwards.

 

[Jeeebus]

Yep...I got WAAAY pissed off about that. There was no reason. And now I have to go through the game without it. Stupid stupid stupid. Stupid.

No point. It serves no purpose in the story (there is no story).

I was pissed enough to reload a save right before the Dead Roads expedition and play the whole damn thing over.

 

[Onita]

I was pissed enough to reload a save right before the Dead Roads expedition and play the whole damn thing over.

Can one of you PM me and explain what happens here? I must have no memory or just didn't care...

 

[Dumac]

I was pissed enough to reload a save right before the Dead Roads expedition and play the whole damn thing over.

Wait, I thought I knew what you were talking about, but then reloading doesn't change anything, as there is no way you can change it...

Spoiler

Bethany?

 

[Dumac]

Yep...I got WAAAY pissed off about that. There was no reason. And now I have to go through the game without it. Stupid stupid stupid. Stupid.

No point. It serves no purpose in the story (there is no story).

I agree. That part was retarded.

Spoiler

I choose very early who is going to be in my party, and it pisses me off when they pull shenanigans like that. Have to re-figure and respec the whole party chemistry....

 

[NYHoustonman]

I didn't care that much for ME2 (thought it was merely decent) and DA2 isn't even decent. It is mediocre at best.

They certainly aren't trending upwards.

If we're taking personal opinion into account then any discussion of 'trends' is utterly pointless. ME2 was one of the highest-regarded games of all time (controversial statement: Bioware's best game to date), and I loved it. DA2 is widely regarded as decent, and I enjoyed the crap out of it (taking into account the faults that have been discussed at length here).

I could arbitrarily proclaim DA2 a fantastic game and claim an upward trend, I suppose.

 

[Dumac]

If we're taking personal opinion into account then any discussion of 'trends' is utterly pointless. ME2 was one of the highest-regarded games of all time (controversial statement: Bioware's best game to date), and I loved it. DA2 is widely regarded as decent, and I enjoyed the crap out of it (taking into account the faults that have been discussed at length here).

I could arbitrarily proclaim DA2 a fantastic game and claim an upward trend, I suppose.

You think ME2 is better than KotOR or Baldur's Gate?

You think DA2 is better than DA:O?

If you do, then we probably shouldn't try to agree on anything

 

[StinkyPinky]

Yeah take Anders with you when you go to the deep roads with your sibling. I know that's a spoiler but I think people that don't have a slightly lesser game.

I finished the game a couple of days ago. It's pretty good, but definitely not quite to their usual standards. The game is pretty long...took me 45 hrs. Just waaay too much recycled content for it to be anything higher than a 7.5/10

 

[Dumac]

Yeah take Anders with you when you go to the deep roads with your sibling. I know that's a spoiler but I think people that don't have a slightly lesser game.

I finished the game a couple of days ago. It's pretty good, but definitely not quite to their usual standards. The game is pretty long...took me 45 hrs. Just waaay too much recycled content for it to be anything higher than a 7.5/10

Spoiler

Why does it matter? Its not like you can use her either way in your party anymore. It's a total non-decision; the outcome is the same god damn thing no matter what flavor they add to it - you can't use Bethany anymore

 

[StinkyPinky]

Spoiler

Why does it matter? Its not like you can use her either way in your party anymore. It's a total non-decision; the outcome is the same god damn thing no matter what flavor they add to it - you can't use Bethany anymore

Spoiler

I had Carver and you can use him at the end of Act 3. Plus you get to meet him a few times throughout the game which I thought was ok. I agree, it's not a biggie but if you can keep your sibling alive then why not.

 

[NYHoustonman]

You think ME2 is better than KotOR or Baldur's Gate?

You think DA2 is better than DA:O?

If you do, then we probably shouldn't try to agree on anything

ME2 was critically better received than any of the Baldur's Gate games. Whether or not that means anything is up for debate, thus my phrasing. I was more into FPS at its time of release (to my everlasting shame ), and I've tried to go back and play them (bought boxed copies of each title on EBay) but for me they haven't aged well. I have played KotOR and would put either ME game ahead of it.

Didn't mean that regarding DA2 vs. DA:O - I was being sarcastic. I loved Origins, and the sequel was a disappointment to be sure, but I still enjoyed it. My only point there was that I can arbitrarily say something like that and we can have the same argument in reverse, as far as I'm concerned. ME2 was a great game and not at all indicative of a downward trend to me and most other gamers.

 

[alcoholbob]

The problem here is #1 a lack of content and #2 Mike Laidlaw's direction. He's a new lead and this is his first game.

The classics we've loved and grew up were lead by Brent Knowles for the last ten years, who was disgusted with the direction EA was taking the franchise.

It's clear that Mike's primary goal was "lots of explosions and awesomeness!" and "focused storyline" which results incidentally, in the worst reviewed Bioware RPG of all time.


Metacritic:
Baldurs Gate 2: 96
Mass Effect 2: 96
KOTOR: 94
Baldur's Gate: 93
Mass Effect: 91
NWN: 91
Dragon Age Origins: 91
Jade Empire: 89

Dragon Age 2: 82

 

[DangerAardvark]

I just did the quest where you help Aveline hook up. So. God. Damn. Boring.

 

[martensite]

I've just finished Act-II; NOTHING you do in this game seems to effect the outcome. I tried all the options, and the storyline doesn't change one bit. WTF.

 

[drebo]

I've just finished Act-II; NOTHING you do in this game seems to effect the outcome. I tried all the options, and the storyline doesn't change one bit. WTF.

Which is, ironically, quite the opposite of what they claimed was the idea behind the game. From their marketing, it was supposed to be a big sandbox spread over 10 years.

What we got is nothing close to that.

 

[martensite]

Yeah, this is pretty much a third person clickety-click fantasy shooter on rails.
Linear 'storyline', lousy maps, boring companions and mostly boring quests...

Ironically, the game started off reasonably well for me; but at the end of Act-II the game has now begun to resemble a bunch of random quests put together...I've done the first quest of Act-III and there still isn't much of a storyline so far.

Zero replay value for this game, since your decisions seem to have little bearing on the storyline :/

 

[mb]

I've just finished Act-II; NOTHING you do in this game seems to effect the outcome. I tried all the options, and the storyline doesn't change one bit. WTF.

I finished the game last night too.. wtf. That's it?

The entire game is, go to Kirckwall, go into the deep roads

Spoiler

where your brother dies,

become champion,

Spoiler

your mom dies so randomly, fix the Quanari problem, fix the mage/templar problem

, roll credits.

 

[DangerAardvark]

I finished the game last night too.. wtf. That's it?

The entire game is, go to Kirckwall, go into the deep roads

Spoiler

where your brother dies,

become champion,

Spoiler

your mom dies so randomly, fix the Quanari problem, fix the mage/templar problem

, roll credits.

Spoiler

Yup, it was ridiculous having your mom get serial killed and then stitched together like the fucking Bride of Frankenstein who then does A FUCKING ZOMBIE DANCE next to her killer while you fight him. This
1) Lacks ANY subtlety of storytelling
2) Comes flying out of left field
3) Is an incredibly obvious attempt to inject both emotional depth and edginess into the story, and a character who they only spent 5 minutes developing beforehand.
4) Then immediately after your mother gets serial killed, it's back to meddling in local politics again, like nothing happened.

What the fucking fuck.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Yep, completely agree on all accounts regaring the mother quest in Act 2. I've promptly put the game down and have no pressing urge to play it anytime soon, that mission really "jumped the shark" for me to where you could now tell me the game ends with Hawke sprouting wings and flying off into the sunset with Ser Pounce-a-lot and I'd believe it. Absolutely ridiculous and painfully "faux edgy" nonsense.

And this is coming from someone that poured a boatload of hours into DA:O.

 

[Occ]

*****SPOILERS IN THIS LINK*****

http://rpgcodex.net/content.php?id=224

*****SPOILERS IN THIS LINK*****

I actually liked t his review

Pretty good review.

 

[JoshGuru7]

You think ME2 is better than KotOR or Baldur's Gate? You think DA2 is better than DA:O?

How many hundreds of posts were there when DA:O came out complaining how much worse it was than BG2? Pages and pages of it, and now there's this thread of people complaining that DA2 isn't like DA:O. It's like the Civilization threads that come up every couple of years - people hate the new version only as long as it is the newest, and then it magically becomes the perfect game that they can't believe the developer went away from.

FWIW, if a friend of mine with similar tastes had never played a single Bioware game I would recommend KOTOR, ME and ME2 in that order. And I'd really just be recommending ME so they had the complete story for ME2. That makes them better games than BG2 in my opinion (in 2011), regardless of how I felt about each of them when they were new games.

 

[AstroManLuca]

FWIW, if a friend of mine with similar tastes had never played a single Bioware game I would recommend KOTOR, ME and ME2 in that order. And I'd really just be recommending ME so they had the complete story for ME2. That makes them better games than BG2 in my opinion (in 2011), regardless of how I felt about each of them when they were new games.

Agreed. Nostalgia goes a LONG WAY toward making old games tolerable. Applies to more things than games too. It's for that reason that I almost never replay or rewatch old games and movies I used to like - I'm afraid of ruining my perception of them.

 

[gothamhunter]

I like how most of these arguments have nothing to do with it being a "consolized port" anymore

 

[Red Storm]

Agreed. Nostalgia goes a LONG WAY toward making old games tolerable. Applies to more things than games too. It's for that reason that I almost never replay or rewatch old games and movies I used to like - I'm afraid of ruining my perception of them.

Baldur's Gate II is still a fantastic game. I just recently finished my xth playthrough (I can't keep count of how many times I've played that game) and I still have fun with it. Nostalgia does go a long way, but some things truly were great when they launched, and are still great to this day.

Edit: Holy shit, BG II mod for DA:O!!! Why couldn't I have found this while at home instead of at work?! And they've already released the Irenicus Dungeon! :awe:

The problem here is #1 a lack of content and #2 Mike Laidlaw's direction. He's a new lead and this is his first game.

The classics we've loved and grew up were lead by Brent Knowles for the last ten years, who was disgusted with the direction EA was taking the franchise

This right here is the answer.

 

[mb]

I like how most of these arguments have nothing to do with it being a "consolized port" anymore

Hmm I wonder if that has anything to do with why the levels are reused so much. Perhaps they couldn't fit more on the DVD for the xbox so they had to limit it on the PC (and PS3 as well, the single Blu-Ray could hold many more levels).