2797 réponses à ce sujet

[the-expatriate]

Quest markers:

They're addictive. I like to plan which area and whether at day or night I will go to next based on which area icon (i.e. Hightown, Lowtown) has the most quest markers beside it on the world travel map. There's a problem, though; for newer players, (or even RPG vets doing their first playthrough or who otherwise aren't familiar enough yet or can't always remember quests by title alone) it turns those quest markers into a type of "shopping list" of things that you know where to find but not what they are. Checking the journal each and every time beforehand just isn't a very elegant solution.

For example: I look at my map, think "oh, there's lots for me to do at Lowtown at night at the moment, I'll swing by there first." But because there is only a quest title to go by, and because there is consistently many quests in progress, oftentimes I don't know exactly what I'm doing until I arrive at the markers destination such as an NPC who then reveals to me via contextual clues why I just ran across town to see him. Really, this is not a huge issue but it is something I noticed during my first playthough... I felt like I was going senile or had amnesia or something, thinking, "now... I can't quite recall why I'm here... I'll just talk this glowing person or loot that glowing chest and all will be well" and it usually is.

Normally, this is the function that the quest journal menu is supposed to fufill ...however, I think that players are generally disinclined to check it more than occasionally because they know there'll be a big conspicuous golden arrow on their minimap to lead the way. This seems to help players stay focused and provide objectives and keep them immersed while minimizing frustration etc... but it can also lead to players treating quests like an out-of-context list of destinations with little depth or motivation other than to systematically strike them off their list.

As a small suggestion, a plot objective point or reminder next to the in-progress quests listed on the world travel map would help keep us ADHD players immersed while remaining on track!

Modifié par the-expatriate, 26 mars 2011 - 01:06 .

[aliptay]

 Ok here it goes,

Dragon Age was for me, the best video game I've ever played (and I'm turning 40 this year).

I was so excited about Dragon Age 2 (I had previously played Dragon Age over and over for a good year) that I bought a brand new shiny PC just in commemoration of Drage Age 2 coming out (pre-ordered Signature Edition from Amazon)...

Here are my gripes:

1. DirectX 11 doesn't work, so I'm using DirectX 9, I have a GTX 580 (eVGA ) so sad, waste of $500 IMHO
2. I have this awful thing happen (which I don't know for the term for) but basically Hawke and the NPCs more often than not have this booger going from their faces down to infinity and the only thing that helps temporarily is rebooting
3. I can't get into the story, I mean I'm doing a gazillion side quests, but it is getting oh so boring.  And stuck in one city?  Come on, I want a land to conquer
4. I'm playing an archer rogue, and I can't imagine starting again, at this point I just want to finish to get through the story and shelve it

Here are my likes/dislikes:

1. Mass Effect 2 style save game is awesome
2. Loading times (due to much smaller areas) is great (agreed my SSD drive helps)
3. Combat sound effects seem better, Combat sequences seem more cheezy
4. Conversation wheel is a pita when you are going through a second, or third time after a reload, Dragon age had it right with the answers binded to the number keys
5. I think Merrill is the best thing since sliced bread
6. The visual world just doesn't work for me, I prefer the colors and ambience of the original Dragon Age

In summary, I'd like to contrast this sequel to the Mass Effect sequel.  I really digged Mass Effect and really digged Mass Effect 2.  I adored Dragon Age (didn't really care for Awakening) and am ready to shelve Dragon Age 2 for a while, maybe forever.

Thanks for listening!

[Delixe]

My biggest gripe with Dragon Age 2 above and beyond anything else is the lack of choice in the game. Now there are choices, I can see them on the conversation wheel but the outcome always seems to be the same. We are not having spoilers here so I wont but I will say that while there are differences in how we come to an outcome the outcome is always the same with the important stuff. Even the ending is the same no matter what side you choose. It has kind of shocked me as it's not what I expect from a Bioware game. Hell even Mass Effect 2 has two extremely different outcomes depending on a choice you the player make.

When I buy a Bioware game I expect a good story with the ability to have my own impact on it. To tell my version of the story if you will. However with DA2 I have a good story but not one I can make any changes to. Above all else this absolutely kills any thought of playing the game again because what's the point?

With Origins there were always things I could experiment with like how to handle Redcliff or should I side with the Werewolves or the Elves? Should I see what happens if I help open a Chantry in Orzammar? What would happen if I defile the ashes? Should I sacrifice myself or allow Loghain to redeem himself in one last glorious death? This saw me replay Origins multiple times but with Dragon Age 2 I stopped playing my second character just before the end of act 1 because I noticed no matter what I chose to do it would always be the same result.

Disappointing, especially after sitting on my pre-order for months in anticipation. Raptr clocks my DA:O playtime at 241 hours, DA2 at 46 hours and I don't see that figure climbing anytime soon. Choice and consequence is something I have come to expect from Bioware, something that is glaringly absent from DA2.

Modifié par Delixe, 26 mars 2011 - 01:22 .

[Cybermortis]

aliptay wrote...

 Ok here it goes,

Dragon Age was for me, the best video game I've ever played (and I'm turning 40 this year).

I was so excited about Dragon Age 2 (I had previously played Dragon Age over and over for a good year) that I bought a brand new shiny PC just in commemoration of Drage Age 2 coming out (pre-ordered Signature Edition from Amazon)...

Here are my gripes:

1. DirectX 11 doesn't work, so I'm using DirectX 9, I have a GTX 580 (eVGA ) so sad, waste of $500 IMHO
2. I have this awful thing happen (which I don't know for the term for) but basically Hawke and the NPCs more often than not have this booger going from their faces down to infinity and the only thing that helps temporarily is rebooting

1; You need the High texture package installed, then you have to alter the settings in the game. The package is available as a free download from the 'Patches' menu for the game. 

2; This sounds like a problem with your card or drivers, rather than specifically with the game itself. Check that you have the latest drivers for your card.


In both cases checking the technical self help section would be a good idea, if you still can't get things to work.

Modifié par Cybermortis, 26 mars 2011 - 01:24 .

[Zalbaar]

When playing the end of the game it felt more like getting pushed to make a decision on two sides I did not trust and did not like. Much like in the first game when I was not a dwarf and went through Orzammar and had to choose between two would be kings both were corrupt and neither was a really good choice at the time. However the game made you choose between them any way. Same goes here I did not like either party in the last battle. I thought the quniari were a better bad guy, harder fight too. Also, the two choices felt like the circle quest we did in the first game. I also hated respawning badguys in the middle of the battle. I would clear the screen then turn around again oh look more bad guys where did they come from not cool.

I was not happy about the font size used in the game I could barely read anything codexs or journal. The font in Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins was much easier to read.

I did not like the fighting in the game it felt like you wanted to make it real time fighting but still wanted turn based in there. Next time just choose, I know you could go both ways on that one because the Dragon Age: Origins had turn based fighting and Jade Empire had real time fighting.

I was not a fan of the telling a story to the templars and spanning over ten years, I felt it was a little rushed. I hated losing my characters at the end of the game just for siding with someone they did not like. Then being able to get them back like OMG I do hate slavery more than mages. I did not like you guys changing the Attributes on me either since 2005 dexterity was for sheilds, cunning was for persuade, and now all of a sudden you just go and change it on us not cool. I was trying to figure out why my character was not nearly as good in the second game as in all other Bioware games I have ever played.

The game was all right it was not as good as the others you have put out however, I do not mind changing the scenery I thought it still looked cool. I liked the voice acters and the talking characters, I enjoyed the dialog wheel, I enjoyed the side quests, and the party members as well as there banter. I also enjoyed th cameos from the first game and loved hearing about what my character did in the first game

Modifié par Zalbaar, 26 mars 2011 - 02:13 .

[planed scaped]

Poasted some of these in the regular discussion forums thread. But this one seems to be the main one(that may actually be read) so... go go action copy paste!!!

First things first. Spears/Polearms in a game=Instant +50 Awesome points. I hope there's a mod that makes some of the bladed mage staves into melee weapons for warriors.(Or DLC Polearms. Hey, the Qunari have them.)

My first playthrough of DA2 I had fun. I did enjoy the game. Though it did seem to get sluggish around the middle of act 2 and a lot of Act 3. Late into act three I found that I had to force myself to finish all the side quests. But overall it was enjoyable. After I beat it though I felt a little dissappointed, but I think that was because I over hyped it for myself.

With the right DLC and mods I think the game can become great though.

Time for my wall'o'complaints no one will read. >___>


Ending **SPOILERS**





One of the things I would change is an
option to tell both Meredith and Orsino to basically eat **** and die.
I didn't like either of them Meredith was a crazy megalomaniac
monster(Plus I had an immense hunch she had the Idol from the Thaig,
and I was right.). Orisino was an Evil man who knew Quenton was a
serial killer and did nothing to stop him and basically let the mages
in his circle practice blood magic by turning a blind eye. It sucked
you had to choose between Mass murdering psychopath or guy who let your
mom die and let blood magic flow through his circle.

I sided
with the mages only because Bethany was in the Circle. The Templars
really are the lesser of the 2 evils though. If there ever was a Circle
that needed to be annuled in was the Kirkwall Circle.

Telling the both to **** off would then progress with you fighting both of them with help from the City guards, and some Rogue templars who hate Meredith and maybe some Rogue Mages who hate Orsino.






END SPOILERS (for ending at least)

Copy pasted(except I fixed some things)

Variety or lack there of.
~For me atleast there is a lack
of Variety in playing classes. When I saw the early screenshots and saw
the spears and Qunari using spears, javelins and polearms I was so excited to
play a spear using warrior seeing as Polearms are my favorite weapons ever. Then it turns out they were just staves
with cosmetic blades. I also had to use the console in order to give my
warrior a ranged attack.
Peppering the enemy with bows then closing
in for melee is always a valid strategy, it was one in Origins yet was
removed in this. Warriors should've had a "Marksman" tree, maybe make it crossbow based.

~Single weapon wtf?! Hello? Duelest?
No single weapon fighting style for rogue's also disappointed me. I don't like
Dual wielding a  whole lot, especially if it's constrained to just daggers (Dual
Axes=awesomesauce) so I was hoping they would add a single weapon style
for rogues so they could use the vast amount of cool looking swords.
Nope. At leat they could have made it so Rogue's can dual weild a sword and dagger. But a single weapon style would have been awesome, I missed not having one in Origins too.

~The Spawn that are dark
The Darkspawn do look kinda bad. The popular reference is Power Rangers villians and it's kinda true. Also only running into Hurlocks was strange considering Genlocks are the most common.

Also, Spears are awesome.

~Kirkwall
Hightown looks alright. Lowtown Darktown and The Docks are all the rusty metal
spike districts as Varric put it. How hard would it have been to add a wharf to the
lower end of the docks for variety? a Cobblestone road through lowtown?
Anything to add some variety from rusty metal spikes and brown. Also there's the fact that the city barely changes over the 7 years. But that wasn't as big of a deal to me, it would've been nice but not a deal breaker.

~Combat
If I had to choose between Origins and DA2 combat I would pick Origins. It
was slower and more unresponsive but it was a metric ****ton more
realistic and immersive. Origins combat plus DA2 speed+ Good responsiveness/physics(swords hitting swords, clunks against shields stuff to make it feel like you're connecting with the enemy)= great. The
Waves, exploding mobs and mass murdering(Hawke killed more people then WW1) feels like I am playing a melee version Alien
invaders in 3d. 15 enemies that fight intelligently and with good responsiveness/physics would have been a lot nicer.

tl;dr combat that is A combonation between the Witcher and DA:O, with DA2 speed(except a little bit slower) would have been a lot better.

~Characters
Aside from Varric and possibly Anders the other characters don't seem to have as much detail. How come
Fenris get's a special dialog when you enter the Gallows? That was
actually great, it should've happened more and with all the party
members. Being able to only talk to them sometimes was not great. Casual chatting about things I also missed from Origins.

~Voiced Hawke
As odd as it may seem with all my complaints... I loved the voiced over
protagonist, I really hope we play as Hawke in DA3 too. Nothing
increases Immersion more the playing as the same character throughout a
series.

Spears are awesome.

~Companion Outfits
I wouldn't have minded if there were at least 3 alternate outfits per companion. Preferably unlocked
through getting the upgrades, or bought as upgrades. As it is now
having everyone but Aveline Merill and Anders look identical through
the game makes them more static if anything. But this isn't as much of an issue to me as it is to others.

of course reused enviorments that goes without saying.

Codex in Dragon age Origins(or somewhere, I don't remember where I read it) stated the the vast majority of Tal-Vashoth cut their horns off to better intigrate into human society. I found it odd they all had horns in this one. This I chalk up to lack of time to add the small details. Same thing for Female Dwarves

Also, Spears are awesome.

MOAR SPOILERS (though I doubt anyone who hasn't beat the game would be in this topic)
I felt nothing when Carver died at the start. I knew him for 10 minutes. It woud have been better if your opposite sibling dies at the end of Chapter 1 if they have to die. Then the remaining sibling leaves/is taken or stays with you depending on the choices you made.

Now for Leandra....

I initially killed Gascard and then I reloaded upon learning he wasn't the killer I thought that him being alive would've been importiant. It really changes very little.

What I would've prefered is...
Hawke fumbling through Lowtown looking for his mom= Dead Leandra
Hawke sacrifices his principles and has Gascard use blood magic to find the killers lair= Alive Leandra.

I wasn't really sad when your mother dies, I was more pissed about not having the option of saving her. If there was the ability to save her and I failed I would have felt sad. Having her die no matter what isn't sad so much, it's frustrating.


Also, spears.

~DLC
I really hope Bioware releases DLC that actually adresses issues in this topic. Not just Templars Keep, Return to the Primeval Thaig and of course The Constructs of the reused interiors of cave 223. I don't think I have ever seen DLC that really adds substantial content to a game. A lot of it feels tacked on and never seemlessly intergrates itself. Lair of the Shadow Broker is the only one I can really think of that is seemlessly intergrated.

I hope to see DLC that adds a rexturing of Kirkwalls districts, Maybe an option to save your mom or Bethany/Carver so they stay with you throughout the game except A lot of things like that are probably too hardcoded into the game. And you can't really change a game after it comes out with DLC. so that won't happen.

A DLC that adds a wharf to the docks though and more variety in classes polearms/Crossbows for Warrior, Single weapon style for Rogues Maybe handed to hand or thrown weapons as well, 3 alternate outfits for each companion ect. are all doable AFAIK(which isn't much when it comes to making games) The game needs some Polish and Variety added to it badly. But there is only so much DLC can do.

Except I think people wouldn't be happy about paying for a DLC that
retextures Kirkwall or add's more weapon trees to Rogues and Warriors
(and maybe even a staff combat tree to mages)...

"Rawr this
stuff should already be in the game rawr!" And I can't really disagree
with them. So I don't think we will see DLC like that due to a
potential ****storm.

That will have to wait for mods. Unless it
was Free or dirt cheap, and there is no profitz in that.(other then
appeasing upset fans which would be a good long term investment)

Anyway that's all for now. I'll post more later or edit this post. Then I'll do my likes.

Modifié par planed scaped, 26 mars 2011 - 02:41 .

[Hayes1987]

There are many things for me too say here so brace yourselves.

The Good: The overall story which is more important than any other aspect of games like these is really good and I really like the direction you took with the champions choices. It was interesting to see some of the different factions and people and characters and get to know the subjects that matter to them so you could make your own decisions about what should be important. There were about 10 situations in which my mind actually changed from "screw the Qunari" to "OK there not so bad just misunderstood" over and over again and like 20 times with the mages vs. the templars. The fact that this very sensitive situation is very hard to choose sides is supplemented by the fact that there actually is no right answer which is probably why things escalated to the point they did in your story. I thought that was very well done, however there are a few things that could've been dealt with a bit better. At first I didn't like the new combat because it just felt rushed and I felt like I couldn't keep track of everything at once but once I got into the game farther I adjusted. It is faster and more fun but Origin's had it's great things that this one didn't and vice versa. Cross class combos are fun to mess around with and the party is certainly more of a cohesive unit that stands together or dies. I like that. The graphics are much better than Origins. After playing the game, it felt like it and it's predecessor are mere prequels for things much more intense and sensitive in DA3, 4, 5 etc. It was like a cliffhanger ending that didn't quite leave me as clueless or frustrated as say.........AC, AC2, and AC Brotherhood but it leaves me wanting way more nonetheless. Also one last thing, the sidequests all tied into the main plot somehow and that was BRILLIANT!

The Bad: Although the story was great it felt quite rushed as you've no doubt heard plenty about already. But what that means to me specifically is so much time is going by and for the most part you are not there for it. Overall I guess I cared less for the character and his/her companions because even over this large amount of time, you don't get the time to get to know them like in Origins and everything from combat to story and companions just zooms by you a little bit fast. I have a good imagination but I'd still like to see more meat there if you know what I mean? Although overall I thought that the combat has improved I feel like it's...............dumbed down, easier, and less customizable than before and that's without mentioning the set character armor thing which is HORRIBLE! The art in this game is both good and bad. The darkspawn are bad.THE DARKSPAWN ARE BAD! THEY SHOULD BE AS THEY WERE IN ORIGINS! Also is every Quanari soldier a highly ranked military officer? I doubt it. So why did EVERY qunari that wasn't Tal Vashoth have the red markings? That was bad. The rest was good.

Overall you guys did as well as could be expected from you and more in the timeframe in which the game was made. (If I didn't mention the re-use of areas I will do that now, however this has probably already been beaten into your brain).

Well done Bioware!

[zyxe]

Wolfva2 wrote...

My cons....
You become a merc or smuggler for a year....and nothing but your armor changes. Really? You never leveled up in that time? Or earned any coin that didn't go to your uncle's debts? I'd like to see some exp and coin added for long periods of skipped time.

this reminds me of one of my bigger gripes of the game... i would have rather spent time playing through the mercenary/smuggler missions that gained me some notariety than to have just had the whole year pass and then play through the utter monotany of the errands to earn 50 gold. that main quest was insanely tedious and kills the replay value. at least if it had gone the other way (playing out your year of debt), you could switch from smuggling to merc/vice versa for the next playthrough.

it just seems like there were so many obvious ways to make this game better, such as the one mentioned above, or having the player spend time in lothering getting to know the people, family, and forming some kind of emotional attachment. as it stood in the game, i just didn't start caring about any of it well into act 2, and even then it was only slight.

in this regard, the romances felt completely forced; i spoke to my interest a few times, barely flirted, then all of a sudden i have to choose whether to commit or completely decline, which seems really dumb. i liked the relationships way better in DA:O, i actually became very much attached. there was another missed opportunity to make this game stand out. but nope.

the game isn't a bad game, don't get me wrong. some aspects of combat were improved, the story was interesting in a way, and the mechanics for a game were good, but it just did not feel worthy (especially the presentation) of having DA in the title. nor did it feel like it was worth $60.

[AngryFrozenWater]

Nice that John Epler is encouraging us to provide feedback. Here's another one... BioWare does not have a good track record when it comes to patches. In DA:O (as an example) there were tons of them and they were never fixed. Theses are well documented on the wikia (even checked by platform). Often with a statement about how to reproduce the bug. It looks like DA2 is going to be on the same route. I have been a victim of several game breaking bugs in DA2 myself (the "Isabela bonus slowdown bug" and the "cannot select anything with the mouse" bug). BioWare needs to change this policy and start finally creating real patches which fix the bugs they have created. It should be considered part of the product cycle and given serious attention. Not just fix a handful of bugs, but try to cover most of them. And not only consider crash bugs, but also gameplay, item, pathfinding, and quest bugs.

[Astranagant]

Ditch the long timeskips. A few months or a year at most would have been tolerable for me, but I can't be the only one who didn't like the idea of Hawke spending three years just sitting around.

Most people play video games because the game world is more exciting than the real-world daily grind of menial labor and sitting around at home watching the tube, I don't get the feeling I want to be transported to this wild fantasy world and control this character as he or she sits around and waits for three years for the next adventure to come to him/her.

Unless you're going to release DLCs where Hawke takes a year to go on a jaunt to some far-off locale like the Anderfels or Par Vollen that take place during those timeskips, it seems kind of pointless to have them since they don't really contribute anything to the plot beyond hammering away that you're not allowed to leave Kirkwall no matter how much you loathe it.

[andysdead]

My thing about the companion armor situation:

If you're going to give us set companion armor, stop giving us so many worthless pieces of armor from random drops / chests / vendors. Sure I can sell it for gold, but is it really necessary to have random drops that I can't even USE, much less would find as an upgrade?

If you prefer to continue giving us random drops that our main characters can't use, allow us to customize our companion armor. Heck, I don't really even care if the graphics for the companions never change... I just think that the current system is a little counter-intuitive.

[silentassassin264]

I couple that come to mind but were already mentioned for sure,

The ability webs:  I was with you when you announced the streamlining initative because I had a mage in Origins that had like three or four (by Awakening definitely 4) wheels of moves and I only used a few.  Changing it so you could mix and match and take your own path through the web to the elite skills was welcome...except you didn't change that.  My first character was to be a debilitating blood mage.  I wanted both the entropy hexes (and their upgrades) and death cloud/entropic cloud whatever it is called.  Unfortunately, I sitll had to get sleep to get death cloud.  I was never going to use sleep.  This just recreated the same problem of having a bunch of stuff  I was never going to use.  The also was in full effect with the warrior vanguard tree in particular.  Why in blazes did you make a web so counterintuitively designed.  in order to get anything other than the first sustained ability, you have to invest in another sustained ability that you can't even use at the same time.  To invest in the vanguard web, you have to get something that you will never use.  Essentially all you did was change the design and still make a bunch of pointless moves.  If you were going to do that, you might as well of given more moves that people "were never going to use", like my lovely miasma you removed.  Also while still on this rant without making another tab, the warrior specialization really did not have much variation. 

Junk:  The junk was just horrible.  Here I was expected my rogue to be useful for getting me some decent loot but everything in the locked chests was pointless junk that sold for nothing.  This pretty much relegated the lockpicking ability of rogues to disarming traps or if you must have that extra experience for unlocking a chest to get pointless junk.

Inventory: Yes I could see why you want Aveline to have her guard armor.  It adds to her character as guard captain, it makes her unique.  This however ruined the inventory.  Any armor that was not Hawke's class became completely pointless to the level of the aforementioned junk and most of it didn't even sell that much either so it really just seemed like junk.  To make matters worse, in the second act I bought the armor of King Something (the Black Emporium armor) and naturally it was good for all of two seconds before being completely obsoleted.  That cost 111 sovereigns and I couldn't even give it to Aveline to get some extra use from it.  I had to sell it again once I got the next act armor set for 8 sovereigns since there was absolutely no use for it.  For future runthroughs I know now not to buy any armor or weapons for that matter.  That takes a lot from the game when there is no point to buy any of the armor/weapons because they will get obsolete (and the armor completely useless in additon).  In origins, it was fun saving up for the Rose's Thorn and then using my favorite dagger for the rest of the game (and into Awakenings) or getting the Felon's Coat from Wade.  DA2 does not have that touch because of how the inventory (and I suppose markets) were done.

Cookie cutter dungeons: enough said

Dual requirement for armor: To put this in perspective, I never finished Origins with a sword and shield warrior largely because s and s was horribly implemented and I found being a tank rather boring.  My first character to finish DA2 was a shield and sword warrior tank and not by choice.  I wanted to be a sword and shield dps/kill machine but forcing you to put in constitution just to put on armor forces you into a tank if you play as a warrior.  You will never be as good a dps/kill machine as Fenris because the one good gameplay side effect of set companion armor is that he didn't have to pump in constitution that he didn't need just because.  This is also a problem for mages.  My first character I created was to be a blood mage who wouldn't need mana much at all so I started pumping everything into constitution with just enough in magic.  This of course resulted in failure because I couldn't equip better armor because the game pidgeon holes you into being a set kind of mage with magic and willpower even if that goes completely against my gameplan.  This also works against rogues but to a lesser degree.  You need cunning for the trademark rogue lockpicking/disarming but bows and daggers rely on dexterity.  To put it quite simply, you cannot get enough cunning for rogue hawke or isabela to disarm complex traps as soon as they appear and put on decent armor and wield decent weapons.  You have to use Varric (having a set weapon helps him so he doesn't have to adjust for upgrading his weapon either) as a cunning dump to disarm complex traps or you have to deal with your team being saw'd, dart'd, explode'd, etc'd.

Templar Hunters full stop:  also coterie rogues, rogue assassins, you get the point.  Just think about it.  Why aren't your playable character rogues allowed to have a gigantic health bar as well as high dex and cunning?  Easy, they would be gamebreakers if they had the defensive prowess of a tank and had the offensive power of a rogue.  So why in blazes did you think it was a good idea to give an enemy that gamebreaking power along with potions?  There basic attacks cause knockback/knockdown which disrupts any spell/ability and they can chain it like that god awful Uthkhiel the Cruusher from the fade in Origins.  Combine that with the fact that they seem immune to taunt, love to kill mages first, and due to the stupid wave system can appear right behind your mage/archer, they can essential combo one of your non melee character to death in a few seconds before the help can arrive.  Even if Aveline does appear in time, their status makes them liekly to ignore shield bash or something like that to disrupt their mage killing ways so you still just appear to watch them kill your helpless ranged character.

The Waves:  What is worse than an assassin appearing behind your ranged character and ripping them to shreds?  A team of archers.  Since archery now causes some knockback, Bethany with her fireballs could have a fireball capable of swatting all those annoying spawning archers away but with 3 archers locked on her, she will never get a chance to move and will die before any help arrives.  Your only hope is that one (or two) of the archers chooses someone else so you can actually get a health potion/fireball off.  This problem is compounded by the fact that fortitude could negate the annoying knockback combo to death of the assassins and archers but due to the aforementioned dual stat requirements for all armors, a mage just can't put something into strength to avoid that or they will be screwed defensively anyway because they can't put on good enough armor and the fortitude still won't be enough to justify putting any in it in the first place.

 
YOU GAVE MY INDOMITABLE TO AVELINE ONLY


THE REST CONTAIN SPOILERS

Having a money limit necessary for plot advancement (mild spoilers):  Nightmare difficulty requires potions.  No way around it.  Having to collect 50 sovereigns or sell your soul to the carta is not really a nice option there. 

One Friendship/Rivalry fix (larger spoilers):  Alexandra Hawke was a by the book do gooder that put her at odds with a certain teammate.  Naturally this would enhance rivalry.  Once said teammate got to about 50% rivalry, it started getting to this point where no matter how hard I tried, I kept on getting friendship unless I went out of my way to be a jerk to said character (which was breaking character in the extreme).  This resulted in a yo-yo effect on said team mates meter and resulted and them betraying/ditching me because I couldn't keep the companions rivalry where it should have been.  When you get rivalry that freakin far, it should be easier to get it to go to rivalry as they should start seeing you as a rival instead of getting random friendship boosts when giving gifts.

False advertisement (less serious complaint ):  Lies.  You don't choose your rise to power.  You will always become champion for the same thing. 

Third Option (also not terribly serious but incredible spoilers  READ AT YOUR OWN RISK):  We had this nice long thread in the build up to the release in which I stated I was very much against third options like Redcliffe because I didn't like the goody two shoes fix everything option that took everything dramatic out of what should have been a dramatic point.  In this you (teammate rather) took away the good two shoes third option which I was fine with but then you are forced for no good reason to side between two evils.  Here I very much wanted an omnicidal/kill them all/neutral/melee at rois(tv tropes) response because I disapproved of both options.  Here the third option wouldn't have been a make everything better/deus ex machina option but would have probably have been harder (if you didn't have to kill them all anyway ).

Modifié par silentassassin264, 26 mars 2011 - 06:47 .

[Ziggy]

I've been playing for a while now and I am SO SICK OF BEING STUCK IN KIRKWALL!!
After scrounging around for hours to get 50gold to get out, after brief escapade into the deep roads I'm right back in kirkwall again!
Also, my character seems to have gotten to know my companions without me during the time jumps

Modifié par Em23, 26 mars 2011 - 06:36 .

[Addai]

Cybermortis wrote...

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.

I assume they work with certain agencies etc.  Anyway that's what they said, I'm assuming since they said that they did consider making them all Welsh and decided against it.

Welsh doesn't sound all that different to me.    And I've traveled in Britain a bit and study languages.  It's not that I don't hear the differences, they just don't mean much if you don't have associations.

Modifié par Addai67, 26 mars 2011 - 06:57 .

[Glorfindel709]

Yes, we uncultured Americans who can't point to Iraq on a map and cannot differentiate between foreign accents are a bunch of sad tossers. We're all ignorant fools who throw our excessive weight around and care more about our guns and our celebrities than we do about the problems facing our nation and the world community.

We should be penned and used for food ala Jonathan Swifts' 'A Modest Proposal' so we can breed the stupid off the face of the central North American Continent.

/sarcasm


On a criticism related note, I recently finished Act 1 on my Warrior playthrough, and I brought Bethany into the Deep Roads. Anders was not in attendence. Without going into details, I feel that the related cutscenes were extremely forced in regards to the emotion we were expected to feel, slightly slapdash in their execution and the constant fade to black before coming back for a tearful "Sis" and then faded to black again, and also suffering from a completely immersion breaking fact that was part of the Lore in Origins and largely ignored, and then seemingly shoved down our throats as a convient plot vehicle in DA2

*spoiler*

Why is it that the Darkspawn taint is so deadly and easily contracted in DA2 as opposed to DA:O and DA:A? I mean, in Origins your companions are wading through the thick of it and not once do we hit a snag like "Sten was cut by darkspawn blade, he is now tainted." In Awakening, there is a man *caged* in the presence of darkspawn for what could be weeks and not only is he not tainted, he's perfectly fine. It just.... it honestly felt like you asked those of us who played through Origins to ignore the fact that the companions we played with in that game would literally bathe in the toxic blood of the darkspawn and be just fine, but people in DA2 seem to drop like flies after just being in the Deep Roads (there wasn't even a cutscene or anything showing Bethany being significantly wounded, not to mention it seemed like the onset of Blight sickness was significantly longer than that of Wesleys.

*end spoiler*

Modifié par Glorfindel709, 26 mars 2011 - 07:23 .

[planed scaped]

I think based on some of the complaints there will most definately be a DLC that takes you somewhere outside Kirkwall. Either another city in the free marches or someplace else. Maybe Denerim.

I remember reading a Codex in DA:O A Genetivi one about a grand tournament held in the Free Marches where warriors come from all over to compete. I was surprised this was not in the game since that codex was the only thing I remembered about the Free Marches when I heard it was the locale. Traveling to the city where it's being held(or if it is in Kirkwall) and competing would be neat.

[_Nova]

TL;DR

[planed scaped]

Nova wrote...

TL;DR

Yes it is. How very perceptive of you.

[zyxe]

cubicu07 wrote...

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".

THIS. sooooo  very much this. it's insulting to pay $60, a high end price for a half-finished lazy game, only to have actual "content" for the game cost MORE. if there's time to develop DLC, the game it goes with should be FINISHED, POLISHED and relatively BUG-FREE.

[planed scaped]

Dead Space 2 did just that.

Removed content from the game to charge more for it later. I always suspected games did it but there was never any proof until Dead Space 2. Now Day 1 DLC makes me very wary.

But since Sebastion doesn't fully intergrate himself into the game seemlessly I don't think that was the case with him.

Modifié par planed scaped, 26 mars 2011 - 08:11 .

[Hybrid-Homer]

I figure that most of the very big obvious issues have been mentioned to death... so some gripes about minor things that take away from the game:

The codex is unwieldy. Once you get far enough in the game it's hard to search through and find your new entries. Solution seems easy enough to me. You should have to press a button to confirm you've read an entry. Then there should also be a "show only unread" toggle button. That way when I get one new entry about some random sword, I don't have to hunt around for it. Could also use some bells and whistles like Mass Effects codex, pictures, voice over.

Generic item names, no item descriptions. Would it be so hard to come up with "Ring of *"type names for the different buffs instead of just giving me 100 things named "Belt"? And then writing a sentence or two telling the user what the item is?

Step backwards in looting menu. Why is there no "see item info" option? I grab an "Ornate Ring" off a corpse, I have no idea what I'm getting. Why can't I press a button and see it's stats?

Lack of stat tracking. I always like checking out in any game that keeps track of how many of each thing I kill or eat or anything else. Origins had some good stat tracking and it was even intergrated into the website. DA II's web profile is pathetic compared to it.

Lack of "useless" NPCs. It seems that every single NPC that you can engage in a dialog wheel conversation with is related to a quest. The only time you can talk to them is during that quest (with only a few exceptions). The rest of the time you can only get floating text from them. If they're even there, as many NPCs only seem to exist when they are involved in an active quest. There's no NPCs that you can just ask various questions about things. I guess with it all in one largely unchanging city that limits the "where should I go to find..." type questions, but still. Would have been nice to talk to some unimportant people about Kirkwall, their opinions on the various factions in the game, or whatever else.

This is somehwat the same thing... can barely talk to your friends, family, and companions. The lack of being able to pick your companions brains about seemingly dozens of topics is very missed from DA:O. You can pretty much only talk to them during their quests, when they butt in on your quests, or when you give them their one gift. It's even worse for close NPCs like your mother. She might as well not have been there for all of act two where she said she was proud, told me about her maybe wanting to date, then repeating the same line about "those elves you're friends with" every single time I came home after that. There's seemingly more opportunities to talk to your DOG than your mother. Also after Bethany goes to the circle, Hawke doesn't care to go visit at all? Seems like a horrible brother considering even Uncle goes to visit her.
 

Modifié par Hybrid-Homer, 26 mars 2011 - 09:31 .

[BluGirl1968]

last post for me in this area I think. I have been pathing through the story and I do not yet think I have found all of the great stuff in the game.

This is not so much a critique as a wishful thinking thing:

I like that I can get involved with a rival romanticly for all the wrong reasons. I would like to see this extended to the sex. There is ardent loving very hot sex for the right reasons, but there is also sex for power, for domination, as a continuation of a disagreement and the raw lust element. The characters have a single scene approach to sex. It would be nice to have the ardent passion from a lover-friend - and a bit of furniture breaking angry sex from rival-lovers to reflect the motives behind the sex.

Great, great characters. I have had a crush on Anders since Awakenings and I was happy to see him front and center in this story. Fenris is complex and fascinating and so is Isabella. I just want to hug Varric until he has trouble breathing and I don't think I will ever be able to enable Merril because I like her too much. It is a good story. At first I thought the line with Hawke's mom was a bit crazy until I thought of the game without it and I do understand why it is there.

I am sure I have not found everything yet. Much from a girl who works in VR, and understands the effort to make this game, to the dev team and bravo and brava to the cast for making me care so much about the characters you brought to life. Great job artists who make me laugh every time Anders looks disgusted.

[Selvec_Darkon]

General Lack of detail and sloppy execution in level/environment design.

Clothing Appearance: I think Bioware needs to hire someone outside, maybe a costume designer or something. That way you can get some decent clothing added to the DA series. The game's robes, armor etc etc, is pretty terrible from a design standpoint. Its not fun to wear something that makes your character look like a moron.

Sex: Stop backing down. Go back to the presentation used in DA. You set a standard, now please stick to it. It's part of the DA package, and if it was not to be part of the package it should not have been included in DA:O.

Cutscenes: Show us what the main character did, don't tell us. I hate hearing in a cutscene "And so Hawke rose to a state of prominence among the city of Kirkwall through many famous deeds". What deeds? You could have filled the game out more by perhaps having a series of missions you undergo over the course of the year to show the most epic of deeds that Hawke took part in. For example, the poison seller in darktown talks about a job he and Hawke did while Hawke was a merc/smuggler. Why didn't we get to take part in this job? I have no connection to this character, nor any idea what he is talking about. It would have also increased replayability, as siding with the other group next time through, gives access to different deeds Hawke took part in, and contacts he made.

Modifié par Selvec_Darkon, 26 mars 2011 - 09:30 .

[Fhylliarid]

After finishing DA2 yesterday and feeling somewhat disappointed, I had the exact same idea of listing likes and dislikes, only to find I am not the only one. :-)

First of: I agree with all topic starter's point except the overpowered enemy rogues. It's said before: it adds a challenge. Besides, there are ways to avoid your mage from being one shot. As soon as I see a rogue vanish, I start running my squishy party members away.

Further more, I want to stress the lack of "epicness", which in my opinion is due to the fact that everything happens in Kirkwall. In Origins (or BG1 and 2 for that matter), you travel accross an antire country and your actions influense as such.
Another huge "let-down" in my opinion is the story-line: there is none. Although the individual quests are beautiful and the (sometimes political) events which influence you and your party are nicely done and sometimes simply horrific, there is no grand goal or epic tale to be told, as in Origins.

Other dislikes are
- that you can't equip your party members (other than weapons etc.).
- the "ornate" ring this, the "ornate belt" that. Lots of rings/amulets/belts etc. either share the same name or mostly do the same as well. I found it tiresome to read the description of lots of jewelry, only to find out they don't really add any mentionable improvement.
- Spawning of enemies. Already said, but worth mentioning: just stupid. I can live with Shade's appearing out of thin air, but not human enemies. :-)
- Lack of crafting. You now simply buy stuff after you find recipies. There are no secondary crafting abilities, which IMO is a loss.
- strategically not that interesting battles. Where in most other BioWare games you should really watch out for not wasting mana on an ice spell to find out an enemy is immune to ice damage, in DA2, that isn't really the case. Some enemies have some resistances, yes, but not that noteworthy. You can just ctrl-A and hack and slash any enemy/group you encounter. The only strategy I really had to use, was making sure my tank gets the damage and not my mages.
- Countrary of what is said about DA2, I didn't have the feeling that my choices as a player had that huge an impact on the story. Sure, on some minor things it had, but this is not comparable to your influence on Ferelden in Origins. Moreso, all the important choices you do make, can be reversed by simply loading the last save. Whereas in Origins, important choices you made would had an effect much later in the game, making a quick load impossible.
- Oh yeah, don't exploit Sandal's success too much. The subtlety in Origins worked like a charm. In DA2 he felt a bit overdone, like Matrix2 was to Matrix. :-)

To sum all the cons up: I feel constraint and confined in many ways: story, inventory, location/world, fighting, abilities like crafting, re-use of the same maps, etc.
DA2 feels more like an action oriented console game, than an epic RPG. And because of the straightforwardness of the events, I don't feel like re-playing it over again, unlike Origins, the Baldur's Gates (which I still play!) and e.g. Neverwinter Nights.

On the plus side then. Of course, it's not all bad!
- lovely animated battles (really!)
- good interaction possibilities
- lovely graphics
- great voice acting
- great differences in personality of your party members
- very nice and funny inter-companion discussions (try different companions in the group for a good laugh!)
- DA2 does a good job at making you feel at a loss at moments because of some horrible things happening.
- Good friend/rival system. First time I see a system like this (where you also have benefits if a party member is a rival) and I like it.

This is about it. Maybe it's useful for DA3.

Greets!

[The_11thDoctor]

PS3 ver.

I love DA2 minus all the freezing it does on the PS3 and all the glitches... If they would just patch it it could be close to perfect.

Main issues:

No Testing of the game( So much freezing, studders, screen tearing, random polys disappearing and seeing thru world, NPCs without hit boxes, Bosses always glitch to point where team cant die, team stops fighting and puts away weapons mid fight and walk away from enemies, get stuck in position, cant aim at enemies when there are 5 within kissing distance of you and you cant attack, not able to pick up loot without switching characters, getting put in death loops, A certain boss dies wierd so you cant leave the barrier due to it still being up and the cut scene not activating after the fight ends, etc)
Enemies pop in on battle field instead of come from some where(causes all strats to be useless)
No Ability to customize teammate armor(If you can custom Hawke, you should be able to the party. This is pure laziness and unforgivable)
Recycled maps(everything is in the wounded coast...Please add 5 more maps and an AI controlled weather system. Add snow, rain, fog, floods, avalanches etc and this would at least make going to the same places 1mill x more enjoyable.)
Choices dont matter(No matter what you pick, it changes nothing on the outcome. Might as well had no choices to pick from...)
Boss drops and major battles drop pennies and no real loot(Fight a 20+ min fight and get 6 silver or fight a 2s fight and get 20 silver? No sense...)
Cant save any family members from dying though your able to if it wasnt scripted for a loose loose outcome

Those made the game frustraiting and seem like a pile of dung

Minor Issues

Character models are still FAR BEHIND ME2. THe skin texture is horrible in this game looking like a relic from 10 years ago.
Customization options are too limited and ugly(cant customize hair. You should be able to choose a hair style and edit it to whatever length etc you want, no black hair styles or skin tones, facial features too limited and barely change, not a real improvement from DAO)
Navigating Level up spell tree controls( Loved the Spell tree minus trying to select the smaller sqaures which took like 10s of fooling around with the d-pad and analog to finally select the right one!)

DA2 Improvements

Combat pacing and style( Actually fun to fight in a RPG...Took till the second game to get a real fighting system, but Im proud of you Bioware! Button = awesome! I hated the autopilot of DAO and it was a huge disapointment to play whenever combat happened. For PC gamers who are lazy and like auto moving and auto attacking, they can keep to the PC, but I like some Control over my battles. Thank you for making the console version play like it should!
Armor for Hawke(Armor looks amazing this game minus the Mage helmets. Wish I could equip all that amazing armor to my team since I cant wear 2/3 of it, but I do like the clothing in this game. Huge improvements.
Environments(Look far superior to DAO. There is a clear style and art direction, well modeled and textured especially in Dark Town, Deep Roads, Kirkwall. Just wish there was more going on. DAO was 3x the size but bland with nothing going on. DA2 has something going on, but still needs major improvements. The art is fine but it feels very un RPG to have nothing happening and like 5 people in each section that never move, do anything and only appear at day or night. Needs more people, animals, activaties, weather! 10 years in Kirkwall and the weather never changes?!)
Look of Darkspawn, Darwfs, Qunari, Humans, Elf Eyes(All improvements minus Elves looking like they were hit with the ugly stick when transfered into 3d...there 2d ver were amazing, but I do like their eyes)
Banter Vast improvements in the sheer amont of content between all party members minus Hawke. ( I cant stress how worried I was when I was playing it at first and as the game continued I realized how much went into the banter when Isabela, Merril and Avalene get together! I cant stop laughing at Them making fun of Merril or Merril saying something that makes me face palm HARD. Ava and Isa just make me laugh everytime they talk to each other. The delivery or each line makes me want to listen for days. I pray you make an expansion pack with those characters and DA3 with this team. Not doing so would be a HUGE LETDOWN and I dont think I'll play a DA3 without this party. They MUST RETURN. I like them more than the DAO team and the Banter between Alister and Morrigan was priceless! Varrick scares me with the way he talks to his bow and makes me laugh, I like the sister and would romance her if not for the obvious. (love the character, not wanting a DA Springer) I dont care for Elf warrior guy. Too much of a drama queen... The brother is on the same level of the uncle=hated.
Quest Far more enjoyable that DAO. Each side quest for the most par adds something to help shape the world in DA2. Yes there is wounded coast go kill something and then go back to the wounded coast again casue we want to waist time and not let you do all wc missions at once and it got annoying, but the once that had story were fun.
The World and the struggle of it Felt like I actually lived in a place light weight due to the political BC going on and trying to pick a side. The Qunari arch was a favorite and I loved the Arashok interactions. (Only thing was the fact that as a Mage I used magic in public and no one cared?! Why werent their guards to try to capture me? Why were there never any guards anywhere unless I was doing a quest and there was only 1? Once BW starts populating the world to make it seem more believable, this game will be top notch! Why make such a small game with just 1 city and not populated it?!
Animations HUGE improvement on all classes! More believable fighting. Animations as a Mage just make you feel like you truely hold lightning in your hands!
Music Huge improvements over DAO and I liked DAO music. (Big disappointment, Just wished BW thought about their PS3 audience and took the 30 sec to include the code to allow us to play custom soundtracks in our game... I could listen to the Tavern song or some of the epic fight music when I wanted to, but not as of now... Thanks Bioware for not thinking at all!)

I prob rated the game at a 7.0 out of 10.

It's amazing fun minus the Deep Roads Boss/fight/ annoyance that is in the game. I beat him the first time without dying on hard as a mage, played a rogue and died repeatedly. A lot was due to glitches, but then there is the fact that sometimes the boss just makes you eat deaths and doesnt want you to live. Too much life and damage when he goes into firing mode...
Back stabs suck and are a cheap way to make fights hard. (too many times I'd be owning a fight and a random backstab would kill me in 1 shot as a Mage,
The blue orb of death that I cant learn to 1 shot them

Still waiting for DA games to catch up to the Books Dave writes...
Still no horses, no cloaks, no weather, no Horse battles....Hopefully patches, expansions or DA3 will fix the issues above or Im bowing out...

Played game on Hard for PS3, tried nightmare and didnt see a point to it. Having your attacks hit you in a RPG is stupid. If they were just harder AI, more life and damage weilding enimies I'd see a point, but NM is the dumbest thing I ever seen in a video game next to Superman 64's game design.