8659 réponses à ce sujet

[Avaraen]

Playing on PC, some initial impressions; apologies if some of these points have been addressed elsewhere (such as menus being placeholder or something), I barely have time to play, let alone keep track of forums.

Graphics/Animations:

• Combat animations are great fun; maybe not realistic, but who cares? They look very dynamic and I like all the gibs (although enemies do seem to explode an awful lot). I also like that mages do something with their staves besides shooting wand bolts.
• Female run animation looks really bizarre - why is my head bobbling side to side? I appreciate you're using separate skeletons/animations for females, but the run animation in particular needs adjustment.
• Hurlock run animations also look odd, especially with a group running at the PC; it's like their legs are doing some sort of synchronised wave animation.
• I liked the DA:O style of darkspawn better (hurlock, ogre, emissary); I think they looked creepier.
• Aveline's hair colour is unnatural and is probably the first thing I'll want to mod.
• Flemmeth looks freaking amasing and I wish she'd looked like that in DA:O.
• Armour looks good; I like that you didn't sculpt breasts into the armour, but still gave a hint that there's a chest there (besides, I think Isabella has enough up top for the entire party, heh).
• Where's my quiver? Archery looks wrong with no quiver and no reload animation. Also, the character's hand is about 3 inches behind the arrow on the draw, which looks a bit off.

UI:

• The menus are a bit too "tech" looking; I think DA:O menus fit the feel of the game better.
• The new conversation system is much better than anticipated; I was dubious about the voiced character, but you've won me over and I like that we pick an attitude/generic inquiry and get a voiceover that makes sense. The fact that the dialogue choices are short and keep conversations flowing fairly naturally.
• Camera feels a bit too locked in; I'd like to be able to scroll out further as we could in DA:O to get a better view of the battlefield. Also, I'd like to be able to zoom into first person to really get good views of the game world and NPC's.
• I'd like it if holding TAB would show all nameplates during combat. Sometimes I just want to see what I'm up against, without having to manually mouseover everything.
• I really don't like having to go into the ESC menu to level up; I prefer the UI button in DA:O.

Audio:

• The "Another wave!" battle cry gets annoying and is immersion breaking, to me; it sounds like a raid leader calling out on a boss event or something (many whelps!), it just doesn't fit.
• Environmental/ambient sounds need their own volume slider.
• UI SFX sound like they belong in Mass Effect.

Criticisms aside, I'm looking forward to release; the game looks like a lot of fun.

[rabidhellhound]

I just got done playing the demo on X360 as a mage, so I guess that I'll post my thoughts.



First the positive. I liked the new combat system. Granted, it's still just a very rudementary button masher, but the physical attack option has been improved a bit by making you actually have to do something instead of just autoattacking and waiting for your spells to recharge. Livens it up a bit. The level up system is also improved by showing you right off the bat what your stats affect and how. The talents screen (though it didn't really need a pick me up) was redesigned in a decent manner that is easy to understand, if a bit difficult to follow at a glance. I also like how some abilities that were just excess trash that you went through to get to other abilities (or had limited use and I never really used except in very rare occasions) got either condensed into one ability with another, more useful ability or got sidelined and made optional to get. It's basically the type of thing that World of Warcraft did with it's newest patch, and I think that it works a lot better because it still gives plenty of abilities to use without having so much junk that you don't even think about half of them. Ever. All in all, pretty good so far.



There are quite a few negatives, however, and not just knit-picky ones either. First of all, while I can understand having a cooldown on potions to keep the gamers from simply spamming them to heal of cheat the system, 30 sec. is too much. 15 sec. would have been nice, or even 20, but no more. Since I'm on the issue of healing, WHAT THE HELL IS UP WITH THE HEALING SPELL? A 1 min. cooldown?! Seriously? And no backup healing spells? It's practically worthless now, no matter how much it heals because it can only realistically be used to heal 1 party member while the rest keep getting beat up and need healing. I'm basically going to need to spam potions now to heal party members but, wait, I can't do that either. Healing's going to be a challenge in this game and a dedicated mage to heal simply can't exist in this new system. The whole point of a 4 man system is to have a dedicated healer, a tank, and then others. Just like a 3 man system is supposed to have a healer/supporter, and attacker/healer, and an attacker/ tank (characters have to play multiple roles do to lack of personel). The heal spell's cooldown needs to be dropped to 15-20 sec. to be useful to the party (if you keep it as a %heal spell). That will mean that if my parties getting beat up, I can realistically heal 3 times in a minute, so 2 for my tank and 1 for a member who pulled too much aggro for a bit or got hit by area spells. My only other complaint about the demo is that I nearly died on that orgre battle because I didn't have good healing means and there are so many enemies that I started pulling aggro. I was left to my tank, alone, slowly poking at the ogre and the other darkspawn, guzzling potions, just to get through the fight. A decent heal spell would have helped immensly.



As for just general, "How would you do it?" stuff... The darkspawn look horrible. Sorry, but it's the truth. The whole Skellitor look died with He-man for a reason. The original darkspawn looked MUCH better than the new ones. Also, while I know you try hard to make characters look more real, you did a shody job on the teeth. Better than those before you, but still shody. Like how eyes used to look horrible until someone discovered techniques to improve them (like layering opacity to give them depth). The teeth really need some work, as do the expressions to show them off. Hawke looks like a grimacing madman in some scenes, rather than a furious warrior. Finally, granted that the landscapes were limited, but the texturing of the land looked very flat and blurred, rather than detailed with random 3D shrubs and junk to add flavor. (How did everything die around Lothering anyways? I mean, everything? What, do the darkspawn have helicopters and napalm of something? No fire could have done that and left anything alive.)



Simply put, while I applaude many combat and RPG choice switches, I have to say that the old graphics were better, in my opinion. The old look of characters, the old look of the land, and even the old teeth (odd as it is to say that). My only other major complaint is that the healing in this game is gimped. I know that it's designed to avoid breaking the system and spamming potions, but with the potions changes AND the long cooldown on the ONE healing spell... I think that's going to lead to a lot of grief in drawnout battles. All in all though, I believe that this might actually be a good change from the first (though I thought that the first was very good and didn't need to be changed in the first place).

[Muddlehead]

I've just finished my first playthrough of the Demo with Hawke as a male mage.

The first problem I found was DirectX not installing properly on my WinXP system. The Forums supplied a workround pretty promptly though, so not much of a real problem.

Setting the Options was harder than I expected mostly because the default brightness levels are so dim! I ended up playing with my gamma set to 1.0 and the monitor set to max brightness, or I'd hardly have been able to see what I was doing.

As other people have said, it'd be nice to be able to use a larger text font.

I found found clicking to set the targets of spells really fiddly, even more so than with DA:O which was bad enough. Life would be easier if the 'cursor over something clickable / not over a clickable'  difference were made more obvious. The minor change of brightness used, coupled with the overall dimness of the game lighting, made the playing experience harder than it needed to be.

I don't see what's supposed to be so good about the dialogue wheel. Where is it supposed to be superior to the old clickable-list way of doing things?

You know, I wasn't thrilled much by the graphics. They just didn't feel real. It felt like I was playing with an interactive comic book, rather than a simulated reality. What's the point of developing new amazing graphics technologies if you're going to use them to make things look less sophisticated? Maybe it just looked not so good because, as someone who's not wanting to move from XP (if I must use Windows, XP is much less awful than Vista or 7) I can't use DirectX 11 which is required for decent graphics in this game, if what I've heard is right....

I don't know why - it's really hard to explain - but the whole play experience somehow felt less 'real', less immersive than with DA:O.

But, you know, it was just my first play-through, and it's a demo, and having the game is going to be much better than not having it, so I don't want to sound like I'm all negative about it. It was, by and large, a very playable demo for what will probably be my favourite game of 2011 after TES:V.

Modifié par Muddlehead, 23 février 2011 - 06:49 .

[Blascid]

PC Demo



Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I thought that the zoom-range in combat was quite bothersome/terrible. It's way too close! I can not comfortably get my attacks off; I have to wait, which is not only frustrating but is problematic to gameplay.



What percentage is the zoom set at compared to DA:O? 25% of that zoom range from the selected character? Okay-okay, I'm not looking for a zoom out *as* big as DA:O (where I can easily blizzard/earthquake from a room and a half over,) but at least SOME isometric view would be nice--would be--VERY welcomed. This will probably not affect my buy impulse, but unless it's relatively easy to get use to (I finished the demo, and it was bothering me the whole time) it's a sad set back because...



Everything else was awesome! The combat is so polished; I love the action flavor of it--I almost thought I was playing "Diablo" a few times. The graphics are--as a whole--a step up, but really only *one* step up. I did, however, like the look of the indoor areas in DA:O and since we have not really had an in game sample of these yet, I can not judge on that level, but for the rest of the game: Good voice acting, good story telling, and awesome combat: abilities, movement, style.



Just gotta be able to zoom back further to an isometric view for the final game.



A very fun Tuesday evening, many thanks.

[JoePilot]

thehistorysage wrote...

JoePilot wrote...

Abstract wrote...

Haha, I love the people who say "Blasphemy! it's faster so it's less tactical". No, that is no correct at all. If anything its more tactical due to how frenetic the combat can be. Thing's aren't moving at snail-pace like in DAO, so you really have to have an idea of what you are doing, and what you are going to do next.

Also, anyone arguing the combat was more "Refined" in Origins, apparently we didn't play the same game. You mean the clunky, laggy, often unresponsive combat in Origins was refined? Please.

You've tried to make the same point 3 times now, we get it: you like frenetic, choppy-choppy,  mind-numbing ninja fights.  Okay.  Good for you.

Tactical means planned, anticipated, fore-thought, all of which is incredibly hard when the action on-screen is an uninteligible blur. 

So yes, by definition, fast-paced frenzied combat with pointless vapor-trails for blade swings and everything else make it much more dificult for tactical style gameplay, and much less enjoyable for those of us who prefer it.

Please.

It's exactly the same, just faster. Pause, click, pause click, problem solved.

I'm playing the 360 version.  Not an option.

[Wompoo]

mcha82 wrote...

Nobody can really deny that the combat mechanics have noticeably changed to a more fast paced hack/slash button mash rather than a tactical playstyle. Now alot of players seem to prefer this, and that's perfectly fine. But understandably, there's also players who are dissapointed considering this series - which is suppose to be the spiritual successor to Baldurs Gate - seems to be moving away from those mechanics.

Myself, I will just be playing the game on hardcore for a more tactical game experience. Really can't judge it based on the demo, as normal feels even easier then DA:O. Hardcore to me will be more team based builds, friendly fire, tactical use of skills and position (and good use of the pause key ), play hardcore settings and enjoy tactical combat. Normal in the demo is a good way to enjoy the story, which is the most important aspect to many players.

[Garak2]

I liked the demo well enough but it wasn't perfect. The combat was nice but the camera was not (I played on the PC). Maybe it's easy, on the consoles, to swing the camera around with the right analog stick while running and attacking with the left stick but with the keyboard and mouse, it's just a pain to do that. Why can't we PC gamers get an overhead view so we don't have to constantly adjust the camera? Also, the graphics don't look that much better than the first game. ME1 has better graphics I think.

Anyway, I will likely get it someday but I won't pay $60 for a PC game, there are no license fees for a PC game so the $60 price tag isn't justified.

Modifié par Garak2, 23 février 2011 - 06:49 .

[Abstract]

After reading dozens of pages of this thread. I think it pretty much coms down to: People should just agree to disagree, some people love it, some people hate it, and there is no need to call someone an idiot just because they disagree with your opinion of what the game should/shouldn't be.

[scpulley]

Anyone else notice looting the corpses you pick up a vial of darkspawn blood like what you did when preparing for your joining as a gray warden? Maybe that will be an option after all. Oh, and those complaining at locked features, it's a demo, I also think the trip from lothering will be much longer in the actual game, not just 30 minutes.

[Muddlehead]

Blascid wrote...
Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but I thought that the zoom-range in combat was quite bothersome/terrible. It's way too close! I can not comfortably get my attacks off; I have to wait, which is not only frustrating but is problematic to gameplay.

You're right, I noticed that too. It made positioning people in my party really awkward at times.

[JoePilot]

Abstract wrote...

After reading dozens of pages of this thread. I think it pretty much coms down to: People should just agree to disagree, some people love it, some people hate it, and there is no need to call someone an idiot just because they disagree with your opinion of what the game should/shouldn't be.

That's a fair and mature position to take.  I respect that some people love it.

I hate it.

[godlike13]

JoePilot wrote...

thehistorysage wrote...

JoePilot wrote...

Abstract wrote...

Haha, I love the people who say "Blasphemy! it's faster so it's less tactical". No, that is no correct at all. If anything its more tactical due to how frenetic the combat can be. Thing's aren't moving at snail-pace like in DAO, so you really have to have an idea of what you are doing, and what you are going to do next.

Also, anyone arguing the combat was more "Refined" in Origins, apparently we didn't play the same game. You mean the clunky, laggy, often unresponsive combat in Origins was refined? Please.

You've tried to make the same point 3 times now, we get it: you like frenetic, choppy-choppy,  mind-numbing ninja fights.  Okay.  Good for you.

Tactical means planned, anticipated, fore-thought, all of which is incredibly hard when the action on-screen is an uninteligible blur. 

So yes, by definition, fast-paced frenzied combat with pointless vapor-trails for blade swings and everything else make it much more dificult for tactical style gameplay, and much less enjoyable for those of us who prefer it.

Please.

It's exactly the same, just faster. Pause, click, pause click, problem solved.

I'm playing the 360 version.  Not an option.

What? I'm playing the 360 version, and it very much was an option. I did it all the time in the demo.

[thehistorysage]

Avaraen wrote...
[*]I really don't like having to go into the ESC menu to level up; I prefer the UI button in DA:O

[*]Press 'C'

[LordDeath]

To whom it may concern ("Bioware"),



I've noticed in the demo that the audio balance is vastly out of sync. The music is really loud and not only drowns out the voices but the dialog volume itself is too low even at its maximum in contrast to Music. Looking into re-balancing the audio for the release would be much appreciated and well received I'm sure as makes the game much harder to immerse oneself in when you hear Haydn's Surprise Symphony and can't hear the pertinent dialog between Varrick and Cassandra.

[LadyBri]

scpulley wrote...

Anyone else notice looting the corpses you pick up a vial of darkspawn blood like what you did when preparing for your joining as a gray warden? Maybe that will be an option after all. Oh, and those complaining at locked features, it's a demo, I also think the trip from lothering will be much longer in the actual game, not just 30 minutes.

I swear I was just about to post this as well...

I didn't notice this when doing the demo on rogue and mage, but I just did a warrior run and noticed this loot off a random darkspawn corpse.  First thing that came to my mind was, "Omg will someone need/want this to become a warden?"  Can't wait to find out what it's used for whether it's some kind of craft material, quest item, or warden-maker:)

[Sanguinerin]

The demo was fantastic! (Once I sorted out my graphics settings, anyway!)

I played through three times:
- Female Mage - top dialogue choices.
- Female Rogue - middle dialogue choices.
- Male Warrior - bottom dialogue choices.

I have to say that under normal circumstances, I'm a mage player. It's my absolute favorite class! However, the rogues were just amazing in this demo. I'm now quite torn in what I want to play. I played as a 2-handed warrior and didn't enjoy it as much as the others, so I might try sword and shield soon.

I noticed the Kirkwall cutscenes showed Carver alive for my rogue. That was strange after just watching him die. Bethany was in my party for combat, but it was definitely Carver standing behind my Hawke in the cinematic.

It may be my own graphics (before I sorted them out better), but there was a bit of glitching in my cutscenes. Plus, I kept getting a "loading. . ." just before each cutscene. I'm hoping that this is just due to the demo and that the game is far more smooth. It's probably my only grievance, and not a major one if the cutscenes have to do that in the actual game. I'd prefer it not to be, but the cutscenes are well done so I'm willing to wait a few seconds if I have to.

I think that I want to play as a mage the most just to get more depth into Carver's character, although Bethany's death scene makes me much more upset. If I have to choose who lives and who dies, I'm normally a "women and children first" player and the men usually get the short end of the stick.

I definitely felt an unusual connection with rogue though. It's going to be tough.

Overall, I'm much more excited about DA2 and happy to see my Hayder's Razor on my redeemed content list. It showed up after my third playthrough, but not after the first or second. I was beginning to get worried.

Modifié par HallowedWarden, 23 février 2011 - 06:55 .

[JoePilot]

godlike13 wrote...

JoePilot wrote...

thehistorysage wrote...

JoePilot wrote...

Abstract wrote...

Haha, I love the people who say "Blasphemy! it's faster so it's less tactical". No, that is no correct at all. If anything its more tactical due to how frenetic the combat can be. Thing's aren't moving at snail-pace like in DAO, so you really have to have an idea of what you are doing, and what you are going to do next.

Also, anyone arguing the combat was more "Refined" in Origins, apparently we didn't play the same game. You mean the clunky, laggy, often unresponsive combat in Origins was refined? Please.

You've tried to make the same point 3 times now, we get it: you like frenetic, choppy-choppy,  mind-numbing ninja fights.  Okay.  Good for you.

Tactical means planned, anticipated, fore-thought, all of which is incredibly hard when the action on-screen is an uninteligible blur. 

So yes, by definition, fast-paced frenzied combat with pointless vapor-trails for blade swings and everything else make it much more dificult for tactical style gameplay, and much less enjoyable for those of us who prefer it.

Please.

It's exactly the same, just faster. Pause, click, pause click, problem solved.

I'm playing the 360 version.  Not an option.

What? I'm playing the 360 version, and it very much was an option. I did it all the time in the demo.

Yes, I can pause, but when I unpause too much crap happens all at once, none of it appealing to what I'm looking for in a Dragon Age game.  Having to repeatedly tap "A" is also getting on my nerves.

[panamakira]

You guys are sooo dramatic...*rolls eyes*
In essence most of what I'm reading in terms of what people didn't like, feels like Bioware has "stripped the elements of RPG in the sequel, and the world is going to end March 8th..." or "this is not a carbon copy of Origins and change is evil, therefore DA2 is evil..."

It's perfectly acceptable that you don't like the new direction Bioware has taken with DA2. But people start saying how they're catering to consoles, and it got "dumbed down" and we're all going to die. Not a very nice things to say about console players....we just happen to play in different platforms, we're all still playing the same game~

Many of us enjoyed the demo and will probably enjoy the game. If Bioware looses some old fans, they will probably gain new ones. I would save my "Armageddon judgment" on DA2 WHEN you play the full game. People assume that Origins was perfect, it wasn't. I like the fact that although it feels like I'm playing DA:O, I'm not really. I don't want to play the same game with different characters. I fully support the new direction DA2 has gone into and guess what it's not that different from DA:O.

/my opinion=]

Modifié par panamakira, 23 février 2011 - 06:50 .

[Jezthesiren]

Just finished the demo on PC. Started with a mage, but kept having my butt handed to me by the ogre and crew. My team was dead and I almost had that damn ogre dead before I was rushed by that second swarm of hurlocks. I had many a choice curse word for that occasion.



Switched to rogue and breezed through it. I think there's something to be said for the difficulty with each class you pick - with Mage, it was too difficult for me (only in that fight, though) but with Rogue it was considerably easier. Felt quite unbalanced to me.



In any case, I love the new animations and graphics. Combat moves much faster and the variation in extreme acrobatic fighting at least gives me something much more interesting to look at while I hack away at a large group of baddies. I like that the demo gave us a little taste of story. I'm excited for the game to come out.



One major criticism: if you're going to have a cool down on potions, let me see it. I want to be able to glance down and estimate when I'm going to be able to use a heal potion again so I can decide whether or not I need to get someone out of harm's way for a while while the potion recharges. I had to learn that the hard way by clicking for someone to heal themselves only to be surprised when they stood there and did nothing other than get themselves pummeled to death because they stopped attacking. And the Heal spell for mages had such a slow reload time that I virtually never used it and felt I had wasted the point in activating it. There were some minor bugs here and there - the game crashed when I had to alt+tab out and again when I tried to look at the credits. I had some issues with Bethany deciding to throw fireballs in a completely different location than I told her to (she'd actually run to the place she was supposed to land the fireball and then chuck it from there). Overall, though, the combat was pretty smooth. Just don't make me be a lone mage against a crap ton of hurlocks and an ogre when I'm level 1.

[Aenedar]

MB957 wrote...

PS3 player

This demo is awful.  Is this DA2?  What I've been waiting for so long?  geez.....all I am doing is sitting there swinging my sword, x, x, x,x button, use a talent, more x, x,x,x.  And then I just keep dying, while my team sits around.  Gonna have to look into tactics I guess, but still, the graphics are so bad, I can't figure out whats going on. 

This.  I never died, and didn't find the demo hard, but I got really sick of button mashing.  I get so caught up in slamming 'X' I never felt inclined (or safe) to swap over to other party members. Granted, DA:O involved a little sitting and waiting with the auto-attack and wait-to-charge abilities, but I typically took a lot of that time to take control of my other party members.

[elikal71]

Hm, it looks ok to me. Not really enough to judge the entire game, so I can't really understand why people cancel their preorder only based on this.

My critique remains the same as it was before.

GOOD:

- visually the characters and the world looks very detailled, better than in DAO.
- the more acton-ish combat is a good improvement
- again cool story where you want to know more
- Liked the city in the later part, especially how detailled things were and how large buildings were, both inside and outside.
- I liked the things in the distance I could see. In previous Bioware games the line of sight was often quite short.

BAD:

- the starter area looks very bland
- the motivation without an origina was not connecting me to my hero; I barely knew my brother and sister, just from the moment since I flee; I wish I had a bit more time to explore the backstory of the hero before the fleeing
- why do dead corpses vanish? Especially compared to how bloody the characters look, the floor looks like cleaned a moment ago: not very realistic
- party relation: why is Carver my enemy from the start? Makes no sense to me.
- exploding enemies: sometimes the death is a bit over the top
- I preferred the old look for Flemeth WAY MORE. It was a sort of understatement. This is just too... weird.
- finally: I am still not happy my hero has a voice. It just isn't "me". I never really know what my hero will say until I hear it. I preferred the DAO way how the hero spoke.
- Visual Design with too many grey and brown tones. To quote Yatzhee (about some other game tho) seems fitting:

Normal
0
21






"As seems to be common with the current
generation, "realism" means the graphics look like I'm viewing them
through a used coffee filter. What isn't brown is grey, and what isn't grey is
too dark to make out."

COMMENTS:

- The game looks so far way too linear. Though it is not a surprise, all Bioware games since KOTOR have many tunnel areas. The starter area were the heroes family flees is really a bad but unfortunately typical example. I just wish Bioware would make more open zones and not these tunnel zones, and kinda go back the Baldurs Gate world exploring.
- The entire story looks a bit railroaded. I just don't seem to have any decisions, I felt much railroaded from event 1 to event 2 asf. Ok, its only a very small part, but still.
- Story at the start is a bit too much Hollywood Film cliche. But then, most games are. :-I
- Mage played a bit diffificult esp. at start.



Sidenote: I have to say I find the "official" hero with that black hair and beard is SO UGLY lol. XD

Modifié par elikal71, 23 février 2011 - 06:56 .

[mcha82]

Arandomindividual wrote...

I keep reading that Dragon Age II is supposed to be the spiritual successor, but people are wrong. Dragon Age: Origins was supposed to be a socalled spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate 2. Dragon Age II is its own thing based on the Dragon Age universe.

I understand that. I'm just saying it's dissapointing that we won't be getting another game in Baldur's Gate mold. From what I've played of the Demo, there are aspects of Dragon age 2 that I like and don't like, but let's describe it for what it is, a more action paced hack'n slash.

[Atakuma]

-The armor textures aren't very good, the fur texture is downright terrible

-The walk/run animation for LadyHawke is too slow and a little silly looking

-The 2h swords are too damn big

-The voice acting was a little spotty as was some of the dialogue





despite all that, I really enjoyed the demo

[bobito64]

Efesell wrote...

As an aside, can anyone tell me who voices LadyHawke, because it's been bugging me all day and I just can't place it.

It sounds like the same actress who played Leliana in Origins.