I strongly disagree with a majority of what you said in the following post OP:
Dubya75 wrote...
With all the negativity surrounding DA2 still pouring in, I felt compelled to post my impressions of what I perceive to be an excellent (albeit not perfect) game. Naturally, I will make some comparisons to Origins:
I'd call it more criticism, while that can be construed as negative, it isn't.
Overall user interface:
Menus all look clean and easy to navigate.
Loading screens are an absolute delight compared to the one loading screen in Origins repeated over and over again.
The art style of these are also very unique as far as fantasy games go. It has it's own identity which is a good thing.
Once in the game, the UI is much less obtrusive than it was in Origins with a more transparent look, especially the mini map.
Full maps are also a lot easier to navigate (except for the fact that blocked areas still show as accessible which got me a bit lost at times)
Attributes, Abilities and Tactics menus are also layed out in a way to make it feel less cumbersome than Origins.
World map however does not really help with getting an overall geographic feel for the layout of Kirkwall and the surrounding areas. This was done better in Origins, although the addition of day/night toggle is a welcome addition.
OVERALL - BETTER THAN ORIGINS
Clean and easy, I'll go with that for the most part. Simpler is not always better though. The UI looked like it had no place in a "dark rpg".
it may be my PC specs, but i didnt notice much of a difference with load times, maybe 5 - 10 seconds. the more mods i had though the worse it became.
Art style is rediculous. Darkspawn look like crap - their armour looked terrible, they didn't look more menacing, they looked comical.
Maps for the most part did look better.
Tactics wasnt really needed in DA2, i think i went in there once and the specific tactics i wanted didnt even show up. Simpler was not better here.
Abilities took me a few minutes to get my head around, I liked the new look though.
World map was nice in origins, the "area map" for kirkwall was not bad but didnt really appeal to much to me, it felt tedious switching screens constantly. Day / night toggle was a nice feature though.
Environments:
Although there are a lot of recycling done (which I am not happy with), the environments do look amazing. I often find myself looking around and very few times did I see unfinished textures (not speaking of NPCs).
The detail of some textures are so much better than it was in Origins, giving it much more atmosphere also thanks to the great music and ambient sounds.
Lighting in all areas also vastly improved.
OVERALL - MUCH BETTER THAN ORIGINS
i downloaded the hd textures and while i agree that while the characters and kirkwall itself looks pretty and impressive, armour didn't look that great and cliffs were still jagged, couldnt look at them without thinking "this is poor design".
music was good, ambient sound wasnt as good as origins though
lack of areas was the worst feature i've ever seen in a game, even now i cant stomach a full second playthrough.
Animations & object textures:
This is one area where I think Origins did better - strangely enough. Especially with facial and head movement, animations in DA2 seems more wooden.
Although interaction with objects have been added, it has also highlighted the absolutely appalling hand animation and design.
Some textures look really good, especially on unique weapons and armor. Sadly however, this is let down by some really bad textures on some generic pieces (cameo character armor for example). I've not seen such bad textures in Origins.
Moving sky, fire and smoke animations and textures on the other hand are vastly improved from Origins, especially when enabling DX11.
Areas like The Hanged Man that should be packed with people only have a handful of NPCs standing around, some of which look pretty bad. However not much different to the way it was done in Origins.
OVERALL - SOME BETTER, SOME WORSE
Animations in both melee combat (weapons) and facial expressions were far superior in Origins. It actually looked more realistic. However mage animations and ranged combat looked amazing in DA2.
I agree with everything else you've said there though.
Gameplay:
Still feels distinctly like playing Dragon Age.
The one thing I miss most is not being able to have a conversation with a companion when I choose to, instead having to wait for a prompt.
Combat feels fresh and remains fun throughout the entire game, as opposed to the incredibly tedious combat in Origins.
Waves of enemies also makes it feel a lot more organic and realistic and keeps you on your toes throughout.
All classes are fun to play now, much better balance than Origins.
Travelling also seems better especially having multiple exit points in all (or most) areas.
There are a good number of choices which does have effects later on, however would have liked to see more branching out based on these choices more.
OVERALL - MUCH BETTER THAN ORIGINS
I agree, still feels similar to DA:O!
I agree again!
Fresh and fun? I'm sorry? what?! It felt like i was watching a poorly filmed medieval fantasy film! Combat didnt feel like "press a button and awesome happens" it felt like "press a button and something rediculously stupid happens".
Waves of enemies was incredibly tedious, unrealistic and broke immersion everytime you went in to combat.
I switch between characters all the time, did in origins too, the only difference was that mages felt weaker, no tactics required at all until boss fights. Archery is still god like and easy to play but feels like you are doing all the work, melee feels incredibly boring and doesnt feel like you are controlling the actions rather than watching it happen.
As soon as combat started again, it was more like "do i really have to fight you again generic mob? It's a giant waste of time". In Origins, every action you took was reflective on play style and felt more fluid, responsive and generally felt more "heroic" after a battle.
Choices had a similar impact as Origins, no complaints there.
Travelling felt worse than origins to me, felt tedious going from one area in low town to another...
Overall - Origins is far superior in many many ways.
Sound & Music:
So much better in so many ways! Too many things to list.
In order to avoid the danger of this post becoming a grocery list, I'll end with saying that in my opinion Dragon Age 2 is overall on par with Origins. Many things are done better, but sadly for many people this is overshadowed by the things that are done worse or perhaps only different than Origins.
I still love Dragon Age and hope the franchise never dies! 
I would say that DA2 is the more attractive younger brother who doesnt really know what he wants to be yet. But overall the game is mediocre at best.
[Edit]
For those who have a problem with me using the word "fantastic":
fan·tas·tic [fan-tas-tik]–adjective1.conceived or appearing as if conceived by an unrestrained imagination; odd and remarkable; bizarre; grotesque: fantastic rock formations; fantastic designs.2.fanciful or capricious, as persons or their ideas or actions: We never know what that fantastic creature will say next.3.imaginary or groundless in not being based on reality; foolish or irrational: fantastic fears.4.extravagantly fanciful; marvelous.5.incredibly great or extreme; exorbitant: to spend fantastic sums of money.6.highly unrealistic or impractical; outlandish: a fantastic scheme to make a million dollars betting on horse races.7.Informal . extraordinarily good: a fantastic musical.
me·di·o·cre [*]average: lacking exceptional quality or ability; "a novel of average merit"; "only a fair performance of the sonata"; "in fair health"; "the caliber of the students has gone from mediocre to above average"; "the performance was middling at best"
Modifié par Poubo, 05 avril 2011 - 01:06 .
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