2797 réponses à ce sujet

[thegrimfandango]

genuine666 wrote...

i have seen this a lot  on the forum but i have to say when ever i have seen enemies drop from anywhere it looks to me that the coming over the walls or if inside a building threw a window 

They do drop from the sky sometimes - ever fought spiders in an open area? Warping up from the ground is just as bad when it's not corpses or spirits too.

You know what I think would be cool? If some companions had a line or two regarding your specializations. Seems to me if the PC is a berserker or blood mage, for example, it'd be something that'd be commented on when they'd fought together a few times. Sort of like the way you can talk to your companions in DA:O about theirs (in order to learn them) , only the other way around.

[cubicu07]

Reused maps
I think it's atrocious. I cannot believe how much maps are reused. It really wasted the artwork (which I thought was great) done for the game. Every cave in Kirkwall have the same layout, every Hightown home looks the same, every Docks building has identical interior etc etc etc. You get the feeling that map designers were being extremely lazy.

Combat
I thought the combat animations are a huge improvement over most RPGs, though a bit towards the side of being too over the top. It also seems like many enemies were actually inflatable balloons, exploding after being prodded by something sharp...

Locales
I know the story was supposed to be a more personal one as compared to Origins and was to take place solely in the city of Kirkwall, but that doesn't mean we have to scrimp on the places the player can go... The amount of locales in areas surrounding Kirkwall was pretty sparse, I feel, and made worse by the excessive reuse of the same maps.

Conversations
I like the new icon system where you know the type of response you are selecting. What I don't like however, was reusing animations from previous games. There were many moments where I was... "Hey! Shepard performed that same exact animation before!" The body language of the characters sometimes felt out of place with the medieval setting that the DA series takes place in. In my opinion, reusing, while saves time and cost, removes the opportunity for the game to improve over it's predecessors.

Facial Expression/Animation
My beautifully crafted female rogue looks like she's summoning her Mabari through her more "private" orifices. Facial expressions during conversations are more The Sims 3-like than Half-Life 2-like, not very realistic. Downside to allowing user-created faces maybe, but I still think there is much to improve in this area.

Bugs
Personally, my game crashes every 30-45 minutes, an hour if I'm lucky. My guess is because I am running the game on DX11 with a nVidia 580GTX. I've been hit by two bugged out quest, Merrill's companion ending scene being played even before starting the final quest, as well as the Reset Potion (from the Black Emporium) bug.

DLC
This one will be a long one:

I have to say I disagree with launch day "DLCs". If the content is available on launch day, it should have been included in the game with no cost. Publishers and developers have to understand that to some consumers, this would look like: 1. Make a full game, 2. Break a small module off the game, 3. Charge the full price for the game and charge extra for the module, which is released as a "DLC". The Exiled Prince DLC is so tightly interwoven with the main plot of DAII that I find it hard to believe that my 3-step description was not what happened with this "DLC".
However, I do appreciate some of the add-ons, like the free items that you get when you participate in various activities related to the game (read the Penny Arcade comic, subscribe to the newsletter, play the Legends game) as well as the preorder and shop-specific in-game items which rewards the consumers' loyalty to the franchise or store. It is a fine line between good and bad marketing I believe.

Conclusion
In all, I still very much enjoyed the game, having almost finished my first playthrough with a rogue. It'll be until Bioware can fix most of the major bugs, however, before I'd go for my next playthrough.

Modifié par cubicu07, 25 mars 2011 - 03:48 .

[Seraph88]

Bit of an essay this, but I feel there are many points that need
raising, or reiterating. Let's start with the good:



The Good

The Story - I think Bioware deserves more credit than most people are giving them for the
story they have attempted to tell in this chapter of the Dragon Age universe: it's easy to create a world-ending threat and have a hero-elect rise up from humble beginnings, gather a party of companions and fight said evil to the bitter (and often) conclusive end. To attempt to throw the player head first into possibly the most bitterly fought political struggle in Thedas was brave, especially given the amount of immersion required to pull it off. I feel that for the most part Bioware pulled it off, and should be commended for not following said usual fantasy RPG route. . .

Hawke voice acting - The voice acting accomplised in the game is clean, well thought out and executed. It draws the player in, helping with the overall immersion in the story and (for some) makes the main character a more definitive part of the world.

The Locales - The overarching locales used in the game I feel offer some stunning vistas, and are just varied enough to provide a feel that you are operating in a single region of Thedas. People who are expecting many different locales are deluding themselves: the game was always going to be set in a single region, so to have lots of varied locales wouldn't make sense in that context.

The Qun - TheQunari and the Qun brought a more philosophical argument to the political struggle, rather than the traditional 'that's the evil guy, I must disagree with him or side with him' approach of many RPGs. The sense of a
greater good vs. purpose debate raging in the player's mind is a welcome addition to the lore of Thedas and a brave addition at that, as undoubtedly many people (the so-called lowest common denominator) would've been turned off by this.[/list]
The Bad

Reused Dungeons, Caves, etc. - Not going into this, as it's pretty shameful and self-explanatory. If Bioware want's to win back the fans who have been ridiculed by this, then I would expect someone to apologise for this at some point (obviously they won't so close to launch, but someone should admit that this was a shameful way to release a product.

Combat – Mages and Rogues very OP: backstab is the most ridiculous addition to combat since para-trooping Templars. . . The speed of combat is a bit ridiculous, but given that the story is told from Varric’s perspective and
he is meant to be embellishing everything I can slightly let this go. . .

The Lore – Perhaps the most important element in any fantasy RPG is the Lore that defines the world and players in the game, and Bioware seems to have really fallen over themselves in this game. The Lore states that magic, whilst seeming to be all powerful, has limits; you cannot instantly teleport it says, relating to the only way to get from A to B is to place one foot in front of the other. . . Yet every battle you face against enemy mages, they teleport round the joint like an extra off that p.o.s film Jumper. There are other areas where the Lore fails to make sense, but I shan’t digress (namely dragons being in abundance, maleficar being EVERYWHERE, and the Deep roads reaching the Free Marches…)

Specialisations– another huge gripe in the game: my angelic mage Hawke, can be everyone’s friend, yes even Fenris’s and yet be a fully-fledged blood mage by level 7???? Being a blood mage has no impact on your companions or story development and yet is supposedly the route of all evil? The old system of obtaining specialisations was far better, as it left the player with a sense of achievement and bearing on the story:
you had to make certain key decisions to obtain specialisations such as Reaver in DA:O.

Storyissues – Hawke mage is a ridiculous inclusion in the story when you really analyse it and makes absolutely no sense in the development of the story: in fact it’s only mentioned once by Meredith during Act 3, that you have been “allowed to exist” due to your good deeds for Kirkwall. . . Bioware should have removed the Mage
option given the way the story was going to develop: I mean what kind of self-harming, egotistical maniac is going to side with the Templars, if either they are a mage, or their beloved sister is a mage (should they
choose to be a rogue or warrior)????[/list]

The rest of my gripes with this game can be summed up the following remark: if it ain't broke, don't "fix" it . . . Bioware made arguably one of the RPGs of the decade in DA:O (imo ever!) and yet followed it up with a bit of a mess of a game that struggles for an identity. There is precedent in this category: for DA2 read ME2, Majora's Mask, and FFVIII.

Thanks for taking the time (if you did ) to read this!!

Modifié par Seraph88, 25 mars 2011 - 04:00 .

[DiTHmaphacks]

Having bought/played/finished all of Bioware's games i think this one was one if not the least enganging/immersive of all.There are many small and some big things that just makes you stop for a moment and think that this IP deserved better.I will just categorize my likes/dislikes.

1)Graphics: First of all i loved how the game look a lot nicer than the previous one.The battles were extremely smooth and vivid.Spells and Characters(With the exception of expressions and the eyes that still haunt me in my sleep) were really well made. But the animations felt a bit off and what about the deaths?Do i really stab someone with a dagger or even cut with my sword and he explodes to 100 pieces?Also 10 years have passed in Kirkwall and i didnt notice many changes.If you just storm through it you wont really notice that any years have passed,10 years is enough time for lots of things to change but not in Kirkwall it seems.

2)Music/Sound:Overall pretty mediocre music.Very boring and not well placed in the different areas of the game.Sound seemed fine but sometimes there was a lot of overwriting.

3)Conversations:I really hated the voice/accent of Merrill but i cant deny that this was very well done and all the lines were pretty good but this time the character selections were a big failure.I didnt have a problem using the wheel in the previous games since you implemented it but in DA2 i just couldnt express myself correctly resulting in reloading the game multiple times to just say what i wanted.

4)Combat: I cant deny that this was fun and stuff at times but the strategy element was completely gone.Some people say that you can pause and issue orders to ppl all the time.But you dont really have to do it since your warrior/mage will just evaporate everything.Actually *Spoiler* My sister died in Deep Roads so i didnt have a healer on my party since i didnt like Anders. And i ended clearing everything without a healer in my party.That was completely lame and i was put off by it.Also the whole Sustained modes seem to be kinda overpopulated.No more giant spiders please for DA3 i killed them all in DA2.

Overall this was my least enjoyed game this company has produced and i really hope they turn this around with ME3.
The game was a lot shorter than DAO.
The game felt even with all the different side quests/main quests etc too LINEAR cause i was always in the same places and even with the years passing i was still in the same places.It felt almost like FFXIII which is the worst FF as long as Linearity(and other stuff but not for this forum) is concerned.Is there any reason for this turn to Linearity in the last 2 years by good companies?Because even if you argue about wanting more immerse DA2 didnt deliver at all.
I dont know but im completely disappointed and i fell that it was a big waste of money but even good companies deserve an off-day or something.Hope the next game is worth it.

[InjusticeReborn]

*reads review*

*looks at author's picture*

How am i supposed to take this seriously, with a face like that?

[Cybermortis]

DiTHmaphacks wrote...


3)Conversations:I really hated the voice/accent of Merrill

Merril was voiced by Eve Myles, who is a Welsh actress. She used her own accent in the game.

Personally I like the Welsh accent, and I've never heard of anyone who doesn't before. I am, however, not quite sure quite how the character ended up with a Welsh accent when everyone else in her Clan (and whom she has apparently lived with since she was about 5 years old) has an Irish accent.

[AloraKast]

Instead of restating what I have already posted in my feedback of the game, I thought I would limit this to my main thoughts/issues with DA2. If it’s not mentioned below, assume that I either a) liked it, didn’t have much of an option of it either way or c) didn’t particularly like it (or perhaps can live with it) but it’s not worth to mention in light of the much greater points/issues listed below.

- Elven design – this really bothers me, as I just can’t get over how extremely squished the elves have become, especially from what was introduced in DA:O. By all means, make the elves lean and graceful, as they are meant to be, but the design was taken too far and we ended up with ridiculously over-anorexic and certainly not appealing creatures with hardly any resemblance to the race of DA:O.

- Dalish demeanour – as someone whose first experience in the world of Thedas was as a Dalish Warden, I was extremely shocked and disappointed (not to mentioned jolted out of my adventuring) when I came across my old Dalish clan in DA2. In addition to the above point, the entire bearing of the Dalish in DA2 has made a complete 180. The Dalish elves especially are meant to be ethereal creatures, graceful, mythical, with a calmness and mystique resulting from their lore, wisdom and connection to the land. I found all these things to be missing from the Dalish of DA2, with Merrill being the best example, as I found her to be too bumbling, too jittery, too… DA2 Merrill. Also, making all of the Dalish speak with whatever British Isle accent they were speaking was just another aspect of them that was jarring to me. Compare the interactions with the Dalish in DA:O and DA2… I simply cannot reconcile the two drastically different versions and the whole experience is extremely… unpleasant.

- Companions/Relationships – another thing that bothers me with the DA2 experience is the rather scripted way in which relationships with my companions unfold, the way the pace is dictated by my companions, rather than me. When I wish to talk to a companion, get to know them, all I get is a one line response (basically let’s to kill stuff) and only when the companions are ready to talk to me, I get a note from them (to the effect of yeah, I’m ready to talk now so get your behind over to my place). The removal of freedom of the player’s dictating how the relationships unfold is hitting me hard and takes away from the immersion/enjoyment of the experience. Also, I found the opportunities to converse with my companions and get to know them better to be few and far between. By all means, pace the overall relationships, reveal only portions of a character’s past/aspects/whatever but do not take away the freedom of letting the player dictate those portions. Look at the way it was done in DA:O for examples of how the pacing yet the freedom of the player dictating the uncovering of a relationship was done very well (for example, Zevran).

- Anders – while I enjoyed getting to see Anders and have him back in my party, I found the retconning of his character a bit disturbing. I understand some of the arguments of why the DA2 Anders is the way he is but overall I find that no matter how you slice it, I cannot appreciate how you can take DA:A Anders, throw Justice in the mix and all of a sudden end up with DA2 Anders. The changes are just too great for that to be believable to me. I am rather fond of DA:A Anders and the DA2 Anders felt like a very different character – why not simply introduce a new character instead of making drastic changes to an already existing one?

- Reused maps – I must say that after a while, I found the whole reused maps/environments simply depressing. Walking into a cave for quest B and discovering that it’s the same cave as was used in quest A and knowing that it will be still the same cave in quest C took away much of the excitement of delving into and exploring a fantastic game world. I was simply going through the motions after a while, no excitement of what I will find around the corner at all.

- Combat – overall I found the combat to be too fast paced. By the time I focused my attention on an enemy, he was already eating dirt, before I even had a chance to utter a battle cry… OK, trying to move on to another enemy… Gha, same thing. The combat was all about being flashy, and there was not much thinking involved at all. Upping the difficulty only spawned more mobs. So I had very little invested in the battles as I found them to be more a bothersome annoyance than anything else.

- Waves of enemies – I have to say that I found waves of enemies to be… silly. I killed all of the enemies I faced, then found that more enemies simply appeared out of thin air. OK… so I killed those… oh look, even more enemies appearing out of thin air. Again, it all got rather tedious and silly and I was just going through the motions. There was not much thinking tactics involved, like for example, in some of the DA:O encounters where I could see a bunch of mobs in front of me (warriors) with another group of archers to the side on this hill, with yet another group of mages positioned behind the warriors – all there with no silly waves – much more believable and enjoyable.

- Exploding enemies – really found that to be ridiculous. I can understand if a mage throws a fireball at an enemy (ok, that would result more in a charred body than exploding upper portion of the body while the lower portion remained upright, but I can go with it, it was actually a fireball of C4), but when the same thing happens when a warrior runs an enemy through with a sword or a rogue placed an arrow between the eyes - what, C4 topped arrowheads? Keep the gore, it makes sense for warriors and whathaveyou to be splattered with blood after a gruesome fight but the exploding enemies? Really guys… ridiculous.

- On a related note I would like to say what also bothered me was the cutscenes involving people splattered with gore and the fact that each and every time their bottom teeth were… what looked to me made to be invisible. I guess you were trying for the blood effect on the teeth as well, but a) that’s just… Ewwww and it didn’t come across very well graphically and took away from the immersing experience. Keep to drenching the characters in gore but please stay from trying to shove that gore into their mouth as well.

- Oversimplified / repetitive quests – the whole questing experience wasn’t particularly fun for me as I found a good portion of the quests to be a) over-simplified and repetitive and tedious which all resulted in me being bored out of my mind instead of excited about getting more quests. The over-simplification came about the fact that generally the quests were all about pick up quest, go over here, kill stuff, loot stuff, go back to quest giver for reward… and rise and repeat. That, combined with the reused environments resulted in the boring, tedious experience. It would be wonderful is more thought was put into designing the quests and how some flow into each other or are connected. I recall in DA:O I didn’t experience this as the quests were more thought out, for example, I had to think, well, ok, I have these active quests and this portion of quest 3 and this portion of quest 5 I can complete the next time I swing by the Frostback Mountains, and then I will need to go to the Lake to complete this other portion of quest 5 and while there I can also complete a portion of quest 2… I guess what I am trying to say is that the quests in DA:O were more involved and required me to put more thought behind how I was to accomplish them, which was a much more enjoyable and rewarding experience for me, because after I finally finished a quest, I experienced a sense of accomplishment, instead of just going through the motions with some of the quests in DA2.

- Overall I found the story/events/quests to all be disjointed, I had no clear purpose (aside from Act I, all I knew was that I had to gather funds and I think that had as much of a continuous, connected flow as I experienced in the whole of DA2). The experience lacked cohesion and was more akin to a collection of individual quests with very little connection to each other or the overall story. Not everything was like this but there were so many of these disjointed elements, enough for the overall experience to feel disjointed.

- I also experienced feelings of no real, true choice in playing this game, no say in how the world/events unfolded before me, that no matter what I did, the end was the same. And whatever real choices occurred in game, I felt that they were forced upon me. It was almost like whatever choices I did get to make were only as an afterthought and insignificant and I had no effect, no control on this game world as a player, and thus felt more like I was watching a movie than playing an interactive game. I felt much more restricted, everything was almost linear/scripted. I did not experience this in DA:O, for there I actually felt like the fate of the world was to be dictated by me and my choices.

- Ending – I felt the ending was rather anti-climactic, for in addition to the above point, I had no real answers about much of anything just more questions. What did I accomplish in the end? Not much of anything really except vanish into this air and leave me, the player, hanging with no answers, no conclusion, no feeling of accomplishment.

- Overall there was no feeling of experiencing a grand and fantastic adventure, merely a lot of running around back and forth while completing simple, disjointed quests and again no feeling of accomplishment. Combining all of these points resulted in very little immersion for me which was disappointing and I found the whole experience to be… lacking, not satisfying at all.

The above are the main things that I found inadequate/bothersome in my experience of DA2. I hope that whoever reads this will keep in mind this one very important word:

Balance

For example I am not saying make the quests so involved and complex that a player has to spend 25+ hours on one quest (well, aside from the overall game quest, I suppose, but here referring to individual quests). But I found that certain elements in DA2 were taken to the extreme of over-simplification and that is why I am arguing for the other side of the spectrum. Find the balance in each instance… that and give us more companion and relationship interaction and the freedom in exploring those.

[The Morrigan]

Okay, in the hopes that this stuff will get read and be taken into account, I shall give my two penneth.

Firstly, I really enjoyed this game. It had some beautifully emotional moments, it was good fun and the characters really stuck with me. It is, of course, by no means perfect and I can see why a lot of people are complaining about it.

Characters: On the whole, pretty awesome. Hawke was fun (especially playing as an intelligent/jokey Hawke) and had some really great dialogue. The interactions you could have with your companions was really great. I often crave more simple conversations with party members in RPGs and am denied. Just going and having a pint and conversation with Varric about my awesome adventures was fun. Also talking to Carver/Bethany about sibling stuff was cool. Avelline's quest with Donnic was genius.
Negative point though: Anders. Seriously. Why is it he still had jokey moments with Varric and the others on occasion, but when I spoke to him it was all "OMM, Hawke! Mages are oppressed!" Even when we were dating that's all he would talk about. Jeez.

Combat: Love it. DAO's combat was clunky, in my opinion and DA2 just made it faster and more fluid. More options is still good though - I'd like to be able to spec my companions more, as before, though giving them their own personal abilties was interesting.

Dungeons: I could ignore that there were few dungeons that were constantly regurgiated, but that doesn't make it okay. Variety is the spice of life, is it not? However, I appreciated that the dungeons were shorter - the dungeons in DAO gave me a headache. That said, one or two epic dungeons would be awesome (think Watcher's Keep from BG2, though perhaps on a slightly smaller scale).

Skills: I don't see why they need to be removed. Forcing me to have a rogue to find traps was kind of annoying. I didn't care so much about not having crafting skills - it's less of a pain in the arse, but I don't think removing them was necessary. Maybe just add more, and persuasion is certainly one I'd prefer remained - I'm not a fan of this idea that you can talk your way out of anything (that can possibly be talked out of) just because you're the PC.

Plot: Eh. I didn't hate the plot. I liked that it wasn't obvious where it was going. In DAO from the very beginning, practically, you know that Loghain is the villain and you know that you're going to fight the Archdemon at the end. There are twists and turns in the plot as you discover things, but the basic plot is pretty run-of-the-mill. I liked that the story was about Hawke's "Rise to Power" (as the marketing people keep calling it). But, then, what was with the mages vs templars stuff? At first I thought this was just one of the troubles Hawke comes across during her Rise to Power, like the tensions with the Qunari. But suddenly it became evident that the plot is about mages vs templars. Okay, that's fine, but then why is there an entire act devoted to an entirely different problem and plot (the Qunari)?
The villain wasn't much of one, either. You don't see Meredith until Act 3. She's not much of a villain if I don't see her or don't even see her evil deeds. It's all rumours and Anders' crazy ranting. I found it hard to care anout her being crazy. Also, what the hell was up with the idol? Why would Meredith even want the idol? That didn't make any sense and seemed unecessary. I guess it was just a convenient way to give Meredith end boss super powers.
I could complain about the end game for hours,  but I won't. Act 3 just felt so much more rushed than the rest of the game.

The Ending: Where was my Act 4? I felt like Varric's interrogation was leading up to me playing in the present, with the Seekers on my tail or having already found me. I can live with a cliff-hanger ending, but you just beat Meredith and wander off. Why would I leave after all that trouble? Why would I leave the city that had been my home for 10 years (near enough), that I'd defended countless times, just because it's in turmoil? It's been in turmoil before! Besides, there's a massive power vaccuum now just begging to have a certain champion step in to...

So, yeah. Really enjoyed the game, but it left me wanting. I felt like Hawke deserved more in the end. Me too, as it happens.

But, Bioware, just keep trying to make great games and tell great stories. Don't sell out to "The Man", but don't be driven down by all the vitriolic drivel moistening the internet, either. Change can be good. Taking time to polish your work is good too.

Cybermortis wrote...
Merril was voiced by Eve Myles, who is a Welsh actress. She used her own accent in the game.

Personally
I like the Welsh accent, and I've never heard of anyone who doesn't
before. I am, however, not quite sure quite how the character ended up
with a Welsh accent when everyone else in her Clan (and whom she has
apparently lived with since she was about 5 years old) has an Irish
accent.

This drove me nuts for the first hour or so after meeting Merril. I love her voice; it fits her really well. But I just kept thinking "why is she Welsh when the other Dalish are Irish? I guess that's why she's really an outcast". I couldn't help wondering if someone somewhere didn't know the difference between the accents.

Modifié par The Morrigan, 25 mars 2011 - 06:01 .

[superslyngel]

Wasted Potential

The above two words sum up my personal feelings for Dragon Age 2.

Let me elaborate:

The game has many strong points, that set it apart and above from other games that deem themselves "rpg's", yet it is marred by some glaring shortcomings, that at times make you wonder, if the game was designed by two seperate teams.

A few examples:

How can the same team that makes the Arishok such an interesting character, one of my favourites in any game so far, also be responsible for Knight-Comander Meredith. A character, that in my opinion, lacks depth in almost all aspects.

How can it be, that a game that presents the character whith so many meaningful choices, is so unable to make them really matter in the end.

How do the developers, who state that they want you to immerse yourself in the setting, break all hope you doing just that, by re-using the same areas over and over again.

How do the developers expect us to believe that our character is growing in power and fame, when we are still assaulted by the same enemies that tried to kill us in the beginning of the game, eg thieves, bullies and spiders.

I dont know, perhaps its just me foolishly hanging on to the hope that Bioware is still the great company that brought me Knights of the Old Republic, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect 1 & 2, and last but not least Dragon Age; Origins, but I fear that Dragon Age 2 is a "perfect" example of what happens, when people with great ambition and desire to create a well rounded game, are put under the boot of people who care solely about the buttom line.

I hope and wish, that when Dragon Age 3 is finished in the future, we will be able to look back at Dragon Age 2 and think to ourselves: Okay, Bioware messed up one, but they're still the company that I've come to love over the years. But I fear that what we might realize, is that the company that we knew and loved, is no more...

[Furtled]

The Morrigan wrote...

This drove me nuts for the first hour or so after meeting Merril. I love her voice; it fits her really well. But I just kept thinking "why is she Welsh when the other Dalish are Irish? I guess that's why she's really an outcast". I couldn't help wondering if someone somewhere didn't know the difference between the accents.

IIRC Merril's codex entry explains she's from another clan and joined her current clan as Keeper's apprentice when her talent for magic manifested, I think (but I'm not 100%) she even mentions something about it during the game, although there's another Welsh elf (Emeric's VA) wandering about the camp too.

[Cybermortis]

Furtled wrote...

The Morrigan wrote...

This drove me nuts for the first hour or so after meeting Merril. I love her voice; it fits her really well. But I just kept thinking "why is she Welsh when the other Dalish are Irish? I guess that's why she's really an outcast". I couldn't help wondering if someone somewhere didn't know the difference between the accents.

IIRC Merril's codex entry explains she's from another clan and joined her current clan as Keeper's apprentice when her talent for magic manifested, I think (but I'm not 100%) she even mentions something about it during the game, although there's another Welsh elf (Emeric's VA) wandering about the camp too.

It is also noted that she joined this clan when she was five. So by rights she should have ended up with the same accent as her new clan. Children tend to pick up and mimic local accents very quickly. Even adults tend to end up partly loosing their natural accents over time - I have a cousin who lives in the US and who's accent is nothing like where he grew up after 20 years.

I can understand giving the Dalish a specific accent to other elves. But I can't understand why they chose Irish when the main Dalish Character was voiced by a Welsh actress. To me Welsh would have worked better for the Dalish overall - apart from anything else the lilting Welsh accent sounds more 'Elvish' to me, especially when elvish is being spoken. I'm also not aware of Welsh accents being used in Film, TV or games often - so it would have given the Dalish a less well known and more distincive accent, certainly in the North American market place.

[IainCD]

I doubt that I'll have anything new to add but to add support to points already made...

I get the impression that no-one appreciated the huge amount of recycled areas in the game. Its ok for a few caves or houses or alleyways to look the same but not every one - not to mention the city sewers looking like alleyways or warehouses etc. Its not good, it makes exploration way too predictable and it looks lazy and cheap. As someone else said earlier, I found myself wondering what would be in the 'boss area'.

I didn't mind the different looks for companions but it did seem highly unlikely that they would never change their outfits throughout the seven year span depicted...did they never wash? And it did mean wasting a lot of 'loot' that might otherwise have been equipable. It wasn't a big deal for me but there were a few scenes where it didn't make sense dramatically (and this was a very cinematic game) for them to be in full armour all the time. A little more customisation would have been nice.

I liked the dialogue wheel - it worked for me and I loved the voiced protagonist (although I'm not sure it will work so well on multiple playthroughs - several different Hawkes all sounding the same). Companion interaction was good but I did miss the opportunity to initiate conversation at any time and it did take a long time to get to know them (and with no feeling of continuity - conversations were quite choppy affairs). A small point this but (as in DAO) one's romance seemed to fizzle out a bit after the obligatory bedding - the opportunity to show affection afterwards would have been nice and why does no-one (except Leandra and Gemlin) ever hug in the DA world?

I had no gripes with combat except (as most people mention) the constant waves of new enemies. Its OK sometimes but not ALL the time. I thought it all looked fantastic and I used my special moves far more than I ever did in Origins.

I thought the game looked good although I agree that some changes in Kirkwall would have been nice through the years. Is it always sunny there? Does it never rain? Quite a wide variation in character models...some looked fantastic (most companions, Cullen, Meredith, the Viscount) and some were a bit weird (most of the DAO cameos in particular). Ladies hands were pretty scary up close!

I really enjoyed the story for what it was. I was never as engaged as I was in Origins but I appreciate that it was a different kind of story...it was one man's life in a city over a period of seven years and in that respect it worked. I wasn't entirely convinced that the Kirkwall events were enough to trigger the kind of catastrophe the Cassandra was anticipating but I guess we'll have to wait for DA3 for that! I felt the ending was messy and some of it didn;t make sense and whilst I liked the main antagonists, I would have liked more time to get to know them too. By the time you confront Loghain in DAO, you feel you know quite a lot about him...I never felt that with the DA2 antagonists. 

Choices were often hard in DA2 (I spent ages over some of them) but few of them seemed to have any great influence on the story. Events unfolded as prescribed regardless of what you did. Perhaps the lack of any kind of epilogue seemed to accentuate that feeling. Somehow the choices in Origins seemed to matter more (even if most of it was cosmetic). Again, the final battle was the biggest disappointment here...I'm sure it plays out exactly the same regardless of what you choose to do.

Finally (sorry for the long post), I quickly got bored with the inventory system. It didn't seem to matter what I wore so long as I went for the five star options. I stopped looking at the attributes of all those random rings and amulets quite soon...I just equipped whatever had the most stars. I stopped noticing what materials anything was made of (in Origins it made a kind of quiet sense to progress from steel up to veridium and silverite etc) and I kind of missed that!

Anyway, on the whole I loved the game but its not perfect by any means and I do hope for better things from the next instalment.  

[Pwnsaur]

AloraKast wrote...

Instead of restating what I have already posted in my feedback of the game, I thought I would limit this to my main thoughts/issues with DA2. If it’s not mentioned below, assume that I either a) liked it, didn’t have much of an option of it either way or c) didn’t particularly like it (or perhaps can live with it) but it’s not worth to mention in light of the much greater points/issues listed below.

- Elven design – this really bothers me, as I just can’t get over how extremely squished the elves have become, especially from what was introduced in DA:O. By all means, make the elves lean and graceful, as they are meant to be, but the design was taken too far and we ended up with ridiculously over-anorexic and certainly not appealing creatures with hardly any resemblance to the race of DA:O.

- Dalish demeanour – as someone whose first experience in the world of Thedas was as a Dalish Warden, I was extremely shocked and disappointed (not to mentioned jolted out of my adventuring) when I came across my old Dalish clan in DA2. In addition to the above point, the entire bearing of the Dalish in DA2 has made a complete 180. The Dalish elves especially are meant to be ethereal creatures, graceful, mythical, with a calmness and mystique resulting from their lore, wisdom and connection to the land. I found all these things to be missing from the Dalish of DA2, with Merrill being the best example, as I found her to be too bumbling, too jittery, too… DA2 Merrill. Also, making all of the Dalish speak with whatever British Isle accent they were speaking was just another aspect of them that was jarring to me. Compare the interactions with the Dalish in DA:O and DA2… I simply cannot reconcile the two drastically different versions and the whole experience is extremely… unpleasant.

- Companions/Relationships – another thing that bothers me with the DA2 experience is the rather scripted way in which relationships with my companions unfold, the way the pace is dictated by my companions, rather than me. When I wish to talk to a companion, get to know them, all I get is a one line response (basically let’s to kill stuff) and only when the companions are ready to talk to me, I get a note from them (to the effect of yeah, I’m ready to talk now so get your behind over to my place). The removal of freedom of the player’s dictating how the relationships unfold is hitting me hard and takes away from the immersion/enjoyment of the experience. Also, I found the opportunities to converse with my companions and get to know them better to be few and far between. By all means, pace the overall relationships, reveal only portions of a character’s past/aspects/whatever but do not take away the freedom of letting the player dictate those portions. Look at the way it was done in DA:O for examples of how the pacing yet the freedom of the player dictating the uncovering of a relationship was done very well (for example, Zevran).

- Anders – while I enjoyed getting to see Anders and have him back in my party, I found the retconning of his character a bit disturbing. I understand some of the arguments of why the DA2 Anders is the way he is but overall I find that no matter how you slice it, I cannot appreciate how you can take DA:A Anders, throw Justice in the mix and all of a sudden end up with DA2 Anders. The changes are just too great for that to be believable to me. I am rather fond of DA:A Anders and the DA2 Anders felt like a very different character – why not simply introduce a new character instead of making drastic changes to an already existing one?

- Reused maps – I must say that after a while, I found the whole reused maps/environments simply depressing. Walking into a cave for quest B and discovering that it’s the same cave as was used in quest A and knowing that it will be still the same cave in quest C took away much of the excitement of delving into and exploring a fantastic game world. I was simply going through the motions after a while, no excitement of what I will find around the corner at all.

- Combat – overall I found the combat to be too fast paced. By the time I focused my attention on an enemy, he was already eating dirt, before I even had a chance to utter a battle cry… OK, trying to move on to another enemy… Gha, same thing. The combat was all about being flashy, and there was not much thinking involved at all. Upping the difficulty only spawned more mobs. So I had very little invested in the battles as I found them to be more a bothersome annoyance than anything else.

- Waves of enemies – I have to say that I found waves of enemies to be… silly. I killed all of the enemies I faced, then found that more enemies simply appeared out of thin air. OK… so I killed those… oh look, even more enemies appearing out of thin air. Again, it all got rather tedious and silly and I was just going through the motions. There was not much thinking tactics involved, like for example, in some of the DA:O encounters where I could see a bunch of mobs in front of me (warriors) with another group of archers to the side on this hill, with yet another group of mages positioned behind the warriors – all there with no silly waves – much more believable and enjoyable.

- Exploding enemies – really found that to be ridiculous. I can understand if a mage throws a fireball at an enemy (ok, that would result more in a charred body than exploding upper portion of the body while the lower portion remained upright, but I can go with it, it was actually a fireball of C4), but when the same thing happens when a warrior runs an enemy through with a sword or a rogue placed an arrow between the eyes - what, C4 topped arrowheads? Keep the gore, it makes sense for warriors and whathaveyou to be splattered with blood after a gruesome fight but the exploding enemies? Really guys… ridiculous.

- On a related note I would like to say what also bothered me was the cutscenes involving people splattered with gore and the fact that each and every time their bottom teeth were… what looked to me made to be invisible. I guess you were trying for the blood effect on the teeth as well, but a) that’s just… Ewwww and it didn’t come across very well graphically and took away from the immersing experience. Keep to drenching the characters in gore but please stay from trying to shove that gore into their mouth as well.

- Oversimplified / repetitive quests – the whole questing experience wasn’t particularly fun for me as I found a good portion of the quests to be a) over-simplified and repetitive and tedious which all resulted in me being bored out of my mind instead of excited about getting more quests. The over-simplification came about the fact that generally the quests were all about pick up quest, go over here, kill stuff, loot stuff, go back to quest giver for reward… and rise and repeat. That, combined with the reused environments resulted in the boring, tedious experience. It would be wonderful is more thought was put into designing the quests and how some flow into each other or are connected. I recall in DA:O I didn’t experience this as the quests were more thought out, for example, I had to think, well, ok, I have these active quests and this portion of quest 3 and this portion of quest 5 I can complete the next time I swing by the Frostback Mountains, and then I will need to go to the Lake to complete this other portion of quest 5 and while there I can also complete a portion of quest 2… I guess what I am trying to say is that the quests in DA:O were more involved and required me to put more thought behind how I was to accomplish them, which was a much more enjoyable and rewarding experience for me, because after I finally finished a quest, I experienced a sense of accomplishment, instead of just going through the motions with some of the quests in DA2.

- Overall I found the story/events/quests to all be disjointed, I had no clear purpose (aside from Act I, all I knew was that I had to gather funds and I think that had as much of a continuous, connected flow as I experienced in the whole of DA2). The experience lacked cohesion and was more akin to a collection of individual quests with very little connection to each other or the overall story. Not everything was like this but there were so many of these disjointed elements, enough for the overall experience to feel disjointed.

- I also experienced feelings of no real, true choice in playing this game, no say in how the world/events unfolded before me, that no matter what I did, the end was the same. And whatever real choices occurred in game, I felt that they were forced upon me. It was almost like whatever choices I did get to make were only as an afterthought and insignificant and I had no effect, no control on this game world as a player, and thus felt more like I was watching a movie than playing an interactive game. I felt much more restricted, everything was almost linear/scripted. I did not experience this in DA:O, for there I actually felt like the fate of the world was to be dictated by me and my choices.

- Ending – I felt the ending was rather anti-climactic, for in addition to the above point, I had no real answers about much of anything just more questions. What did I accomplish in the end? Not much of anything really except vanish into this air and leave me, the player, hanging with no answers, no conclusion, no feeling of accomplishment.

- Overall there was no feeling of experiencing a grand and fantastic adventure, merely a lot of running around back and forth while completing simple, disjointed quests and again no feeling of accomplishment. Combining all of these points resulted in very little immersion for me which was disappointing and I found the whole experience to be… lacking, not satisfying at all.

The above are the main things that I found inadequate/bothersome in my experience of DA2. I hope that whoever reads this will keep in mind this one very important word:

Balance

For example I am not saying make the quests so involved and complex that a player has to spend 25+ hours on one quest (well, aside from the overall game quest, I suppose, but here referring to individual quests). But I found that certain elements in DA2 were taken to the extreme of over-simplification and that is why I am arguing for the other side of the spectrum. Find the balance in each instance… that and give us more companion and relationship interaction and the freedom in exploring those.

Absolutely fantastic post, thank you.

[asminho]

loved DA:O and also loved DA 2 but offcourse expected a little more from this game.

for me the gameplay is alot better then DA:O so they made improvements there. but like everyone else dont like to se NPC explode for no reason at all and its a bad that they removed the combat finishers.

didnt like the recycle maps it get annoying after a while, and also Kirkwall should have been bigger and more alive city. And also that they didnt even notice hawke being a mage.

and should have been more choices in the game because it felt you didnt do any real change just some small side quest when you get the letters in your house.

[Beatlemama]

I haven't finished DA2 yet but I'm well into it. I'm enjoying it but liked Origins and Awakenings better. I even thought the art was much better in Origins. What I dislike about DA2, unable to upgrade or customize companions weapons and armor. There are many many glitches, don't know what else to call them. I was in a battle once and it said I had completed the qwest, then more enemies appeared, I fought another few minutes and completed the qwest again.. I really despise using the same maps over and over again. And there's rarely anything good in a treasure chest, it's always junk.. It looks to me like this game was very rushed and if they would have spent more time on it it could have been much better. I played Origins and Awakenings 4 times as a different charactor each time. I really don't think I'll play DA2 again. 2 disappointments for me in video games this year, DA2 and FFXIII

[Pwnsaur]

You may remember my 'Words from a broken hearted gamer' post, and I wanted to let my mind takeover where my heart ended. I took a few days, and I am ready to address some honest pros/cons of the game. I'd honestly like to know how my BioWare friends feel about these points...

**SPOILERS**

PROS




Aveline was an awesome character. I really liked her and always wanted her around, she seemed very 'real.'
[/list]




Couple of the songs, the soundtrack was pretty decent. Inon Zur is great.
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The feeling of progress when I acquired my mansion was nice. I felt a bit awful for becomming one of societies' elites while the corruption and inequality of the city kept so many down though.
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The non-linear skill trees were an improvement, not earth shattering, but a slight step up.
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I love Sandal.
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Dog.
[/list]CONS





Combat felt very tedious. I hated having to continually press the X button.







Not a fan of the spawning enemies. Killed some immersion and defeated the purpose of conservationist and positional combat tactics.
[/list]




Recycled maps
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Drastically less NPC interaction.
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A definite loss of character progression. The enemy scaling made leveling up mostly irrelevant. By level 21, I should be annihilating people left and right, but it essentially felt the exact same as level 1. The weak enemies, medium enemies, low tier bosses, mid tier bosses, and elites basically felt the exact same throughout the entire game. This type of streamlining isn't good for people who want to feel a tangible sense of progression as they become stronger. Why not just skip the entire leveling system completely if the enemies are always scaled to you? Makes no sense. It feels like a 'smoke and mirrors' attempt at appeasing RPG fans while ensuring action fans can just ignore it. Transparent.




Minimal recognition of the events of DA:O. Saved game imports were mostly irrelevant, and entirely unsatisfying.



Sidequests with little to no affect/bearing on the story or the gameworld. A big disconnect here for me.
[/list]




Almost no emotional impact about anything. Sister gets taken away by Templars, mother killed, Brother killed, friends disappear.... And no real dialogue about it. Example; I say ONE sentence to my sister who I have not seen in three years 'Good to see you're safe.' With NO emotion or anything. Unforgiveable.
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The graphics made Leliana and Alistair look like different people.
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A giant slap in the face to DA:O players who romanced Leliana to only casually ackowledge the Warden and her past... And to also have them split up with no explanation... Even in the Codex? Why?
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Visiting my companions for conversations 4-5 times in the entire 10yr span? Not acceptable.



[/list]
No major choices. A vastly more linear game than I am used to playing from BioWare.




Having an unavoidable set of contrived circumstances remove the most emotionally engaging characters in the story? (Mother/sister) I hate this type of faux-non-linearity. It feels very trite.
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Can't customize companions armor. I hated this... I really did.
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The overall lack of cohesion throughout the storyline and unfocused objective. The 'Champion' feels very 'thrusted' into these situations where I don't really believe he belongs. I felt like I was being forced into roles without any real reason, and the ties between everything were just not strong enough for me. 
[/list]




Exploding bodies.
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No exploration.
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Giant gaps in storytelling between acts.
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No non-combat related skills. Persuasion especially has always been a big part of BioWare games. The removal of these elements was very unnecessary.
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Cutscenes where 'my' champion says things that I do not decide.
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Running frantically to intervene in a bad situation, only to stand and observe the 'bad guys' killing/torturing the people I'm trying to save. WHAT AM I WAITING FOR!?
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The dialogue wheel. The Good/sarcastic/Bad responses took almost 100% of the weight out of the dialogue choices. I didn't even have to think before responding, it just became metagaming without any real thought or involvement. Uninspiring.
[/list]




The way the quests are so impersonal and clinical as to give me a feeling of 'checking them off of a to-do list' as opposed to actually caring about the outcome and wanting to complete them. It has as much to do with the inorganic manifestation of the quests as anything. The way everything is just a marker on the screen as opposed to a dilemma you've uncovered through interaction with NPC's and objects that aren't marked with a huge arrow. It all felt very banal after about 45mins, when I figured out the only people I needed to pay attention to were the overtly marked quest icons and I could almost completely ignore every other element of the gameworld. Impersonal and soulless.
[/list]




The ending. This was the biggest letdown for me. I felt DA:O had one of the best endings of any game that I'd played. Lengthy epilogues and the ability to walk around and talk to everyone you helped and affected throughout the entire game was SO satisfying. The only thing that soured it for me was the lackluster Awakening and DLC that didn't really answer any of the remaining questions about the Warden and his companions. DA2's ending felt like the WORST sort of sequel bait where they literally don't tell you ANYTHING to ensure your sale for the impending DLC/Expansion. I felt cheated to not really get a feeling for what happened to me, as well as any of the hundreds of people I did fetch quests for or my companions. We moved to the mountains and then separated? Basically... awful.
[/list]

In the end the game was about  6/10, if I had to give it a score. I wouldn't recommend it, and I won't ever play it again. All these things and more seem to add up to a very unsatisfied feeling, and it's very foreign for a BioWare game. There always seemed to be a life and soul to the games they've put out, but this one is just lacking. I hope I've avoided offending anyone, and put words to some of the more ambiguous complaints about the game.

Cheers.

[Wearing Sunglasses at Night]

Pwnsaur - Re; the Warden and Leliana: based on the final dialogue at the end of the game, I am guessing that we will learn what happened between Leliana and the Warden, and possibly even revisit both the Warden and Hawke, when DA3 comes out. I too was wondering until the very end and what Cassandra said.

Just mere speculation on my part though - and a little bit of hopefulness...

[Burton999]

Usually I don`t leave my opinion,concernings games, on forums. But in this rare case i just have too. After 10 hours gameplay in DA2 I was exposed for what I would call a "gay-trap". It was late night and I was tired and I hit the wrong choice in the wrong dialog.
I`m hetero and I have 3 friends that are gay. Their sexual preferences doesn`t consern me and I have nothing against them. I`m saying this because alot of people who are gay or bi feel that what I`m saying in this thread might be short sighted or that it might be a narrow point of view. I`m not and I don`t.

But my point is that when I`m playing a game like DA2, I would like to develop a character, create certain abilities, stances,traits etc. which fits my wishes. Just being inattentive for a minute and my character heads toward a gayish orientation which is not my preference. That is what I would call a devestasting way to develop a character.

Gay, hetero or bi, I think we all can agree that our sexual orientation means a lot to us in real life. And so does it in a 50 hour long game, in my opinion. I honestly must say that it ruined my game experience and I had to use a savegame which left me two hours behind schedule. Not that it matters that much, but it also leaves me with a totally different point of view of the game. Now I must take care what I say all the time, to whom I say it, at what time i say it, or I risk ending up with a ##"¤¤" in my "#¤¤¤(pardon my language). I lost focus on the history and I ended up never taking with me Anders nor Fenris. It`s kind of sad, because they are two persons out of 6 members. The game offers great dialogs with your crew members and now I missed 33,3% of these dialogs. It`s not realistic the way BW has developed the game dialogs concerning sexuality. It just "#¤"#4`s up the game.

To point this out. I still have 3 gay friends in real life, and I don`t risk having a sexual relationship by only talking to or being nice to them.

I must point out that I have only played the game once.

BW, where did you leave your magic?/images/forum/emoticons/wizard.png

[genuine666]

Cybermortis wrote...

DiTHmaphacks wrote...


3)Conversations:I really hated the voice/accent of Merrill

Merril was voiced by Eve Myles, who is a Welsh actress. She used her own accent in the game.

Personally I like the Welsh accent, and I've never heard of anyone who doesn't before. I am, however, not quite sure quite how the character ended up with a Welsh accent when everyone else in her Clan (and whom she has apparently lived with since she was about 5 years old) has an Irish accent.

i agree with that lol some even have a very weak scottish accent too i think they where try to go for a old world Celtic feel for the elves but for ppl who live in Britain i think is was a fail not sure what the USA and the rest of the world thinks

Modifié par genuine666, 25 mars 2011 - 08:35 .

[Warrior_Within]

Game is too short!!!

[Wisnoe]

After finishing my first playthrough I have some good things and bad things to say about Drago Age II, though mostly good things.

When I first saw the demo of Dragon Age II I was a bit shocked and felt it went too far from Origins. However after playing the demo as a rogue I was instantly hooked. Sure, some bits were overdone, but I loved the fast pace of it.

Then I reminded that I didn't like Origins as much as I had expected. I love you guys since Baldur's Gate I and if I could have your babies after BG II and Throne of Bhaal I would have. With Origins my problems were with the combat, but most of all with the compagnions. Since I played a Dwarf commoner rogue I didn't need other rogues in the party.
The only character I found remotely interesting and fun was Alistair. The rest was too cliché or misunderstood by me.  Especially Morrigan. I loved her voice, but for someone growing up in almost solitude, she was way too cocky. Mass Effect, KOTOR, BG were all really memorable because of the amount of compagnions you could bring and the interactions. That's way I finished Origins only once and killed off my Warden. Origins was linear and I missed the sense of urgency overall. There were Grey Wardens in other countries still, so me and my character couldn't really understand why me and Alistair needed to be the heroes.

That said I thoroughly enjoyed Dragon Age II, more so then I expected.

I really really like my compagnions. They have lives in the city, the interactions are memorable, as well as the romance options. I want to finish a second time now, to go through with other party members and discover their fun and story, extremely well done!

I also love the ambiguous choices I have to make. Sometimes an answer I would have expected wasn't what Hawke was saying, but I didn't mind. I only once replayed a bit (Deep Roads) because of what happened there, but overall I didn't have to back down on decisions, dealing with the consequences felt good and logical. I love the fact that you blurred the fine line of mages and templars, revealing evil and good on both sides of the fence, sometimes I had really trouble choosing because I would support one side, but that side just did something horrible, making me think long and hard on some decisions! A job well done! Much better than I anticipated.

I also like the fact that it is a story about a champion and his struggles. I love the inclusions of family and how you handled them, making decisions hard. I really felt I had to make some tough decisions, more so than Origins. The end was nice, and made me extremely curious to the expansion and/or Dragon Age III. I wonder if my Warden was really dead

What I really didn't like was the re-use of caves, dungeons and cellars. It felt cheap, as if everything went into choices instead of environment.
I was impressed with Kirkwall and I love the look of it. However...I would have expected a city to grow/change over the years and some sort of change would have been nice. Also, it is supposed to be a huge city, but it felt empty. Not many people strolling around, which was a bit of a disappointment.

Overall I really really enjoyed myself and I don't think you deserve the flak you initially got when it launched.

[Addai]

genuine666 wrote...
i agree with that lol some even have a very weak scottish accent too i think they where try to go for a old world Celtic feel for the elves but for ppl who live in Britain i think is was a fail not sure what the USA and the rest of the world thinks

I loved the elves' accents, and most Americans probably don't distinguish much between them.

[Addai]

Cybermortis wrote...
 I'm also not aware of Welsh accents being used in Film, TV or games often - so it would have given the Dalish a less well known and more distincive accent, certainly in the North American market place.

That's the problem.  One of the devs commented that they chose to broaden it because of availability of voice actors.  Most Americans wouldn't distinguish anyway.

[Cybermortis]

Addai67 wrote...

Cybermortis wrote...
 I'm also not aware of Welsh accents being used in Film, TV or games often - so it would have given the Dalish a less well known and more distincive accent, certainly in the North American market place.

That's the problem.  One of the devs commented that they chose to broaden it because of availability of voice actors.  Most Americans wouldn't distinguish anyway.

If Americans can't tell the difference between Welsh and Irish...well the mind boggles. I can understand difficulty telling some Scotish and Irish accents apart - they both share a very similar language - but Welsh is something different entirely.

As to finding people with Welsh accents for VO's...are we to believe that no one thought to ask the Welsh actress if she knew of anyone? Wales broadcasts its own programs in Welsh for God's sake! Finding Welsh actors should take one phone call.

[AloraKast]

Many thanks Pwnsaur, really appreciate it hun. And I must say, a very good post yourself ;o)

I just wanted to add that if only the very talented Bioware artists were given the opportunity to spread their wings and do that which they do best... I believe we would have ended up with another solid, polished product of high quality that this company has been known for. Even if some of the story elements or direction may not be what we would have liked to see (I recall screaming mentally at the books - or was it David himself? - when I was reading The Stolen Throne and The Calling), the end result would have been a much more solid and satisfying experience.

Please guys, take these comments to heart and return to the ideals of high quality over the fast buck - the very ideals you lived by - and create something to the very best of your considerable abilities that you can be extremely proud of.