966 réponses à ce sujet

[darkrose]

HallowedWarden wrote...

I think everyone in Kirkwall engraves their names and general hang-out locations into everything they own, so that if it goes missing it can easily be returned to the owner.

Well, there are a lot of templars in Kirkwall, and we know from Alistair that they write their name in their socks and possibly underwear.

[Night Prowler76]

The best part is, Mike's basic answer for everything is "I LIKE IT THIS WAY", how can someone be so out of touch with the fanbase? Is he really that short-sighted as to alienate more and more people with these interviews with deflections and basically telling people that THEIR OPINION IS WRONG.

You had a good run BioWare, Im sure ME3 will be still be a good game because its the A Team that works on it, but rest assured, I wont ever be buying any DLC or DA garbage again after seeing Mikes attitude, you guys really need a community manager and not someone like Mike doing these interviews.

It almost seemed like DAO was too difficult for Mike to get a grasp of or play himself, thats the only reason I can fathom what has happened to the game, Im glad they are flaming it on the Gamespot forums, it gets what it deserves.

Modifié par Night Prowler76, 15 avril 2011 - 01:02 .

[AxellSlade]

Seriously Mike, if they put DA3 on your hands, it will end up coming with an Atari controller in the bundle.
I can't understand how you fail to acknowledge you turned an established franchise into a failed Jade Empire clone.

Modifié par AxellSlade, 15 avril 2011 - 01:01 .

[Boiny Bunny]

It's also worth mentioning that it is not typical for a game to have more than 1 lead designer at a time.

Ohlen left and Knowles replaced him, very early on the in the DA:O development process. This would suggest that Laidlaw only became Lead Designer for DA:O when Knowles was no longer the lead designer - which makes perfect sense.

It is not likely that Laidlaw had almost anything to do with the PC DA:O development, as Knowles only left in September 2009, and the game was released in December 2009 (also bearing in mind that the PC version was almost completely finished 9 months prior to the final release date - meaning the PC version would have been finished appoximately Feb 2009)

All of these things point to (supported by Knowles statements and even some of Gaider's about adding Shale), Origins on PC being more or less finalised in early 2009, and Laidlaw being brought on just before this point with the idea of porting the game to consoles.

Knowles would have worked on some early DLC or perhaps Awakening, then when the DA2 talks started, decided he didn't want to be a part of it and eventually resigned.

Also worth noting, Knowles was going to be the Lead Designer for DA2. He makes that clear enough in his blogs. Not Laidlaw. If he was going to be the lead designer, it stands to reason that he was the lead designer of DA:O for the majority of it's development, and Laidlaw had little to do with the project.

Again though, a good deal of this is speculation.

[Night Prowler76]

Otterwarden wrote...

Well, I posted this in the "what stage are you thread last night" and I see that my impressions are once again reinforced with this most recent interview in this thread.

With DA, I've reach the stage of acceptance. Nothing written convinces me that the team in place can/will make the changes that would be necessary for me personally to enjoy the series.

Edit: Found this recent review very interesting in that the author was rather harsh on DA2:

www.destructoid.com/the-final-preview-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings-198746.phtml

I'll just pull out a couple of lines from that preview:

"Then you have games like Dragon Age II that streamline the more hardcore elements to provide a more polished experience, but at the same time restrict your freedom in terms of customizability and things like crafting."

"Instead of having a tiresome chain of events explained to you, the game expects you to figure out what exactly is going on by just dealing with present events and by paying attention to key characters that shed light on the situation at hand. It's a refreshing take on the old narrative structure we've grown accustomed to in RPGs, for sure."

"That's the kind of scope you're going to have to expect from this game with regard to choice and consequence. Some consequences may be easy to anticipate when you are given a choice. Other choices may affects things you weren't even aware of. It appears that The Witcher 2 attempts to weave a magical tapestry of non-linear interactive storytelling throughout the entire game. And from the looks of it, it does so without making it as obvious as in other games."

"I knew I should keep my eye on The Witcher 2 even before I first saw it in action last year, but now that I've finally played it I feel confident enough to say that as a PC owner you're not likely to find anything like it all year. Sorry Hawke, but your cardboard persona is about to be witched in half."

If we get enough comparisons like this maybe Laidlaw will finally take his hands off his ears.

Dont be foolish, Mike thinks DA2 IS AWESOME!@!! lol Bring on the TW2 I say.

[Miashi]

A bit off-topic, but the uprising against dragon age 2 reminds me too well of the reception Neverwinter Nights 2 received a few years ago.

Small observations:

NWN1 vs NWN2 disparities
NWN2 was made by Obsidian, not Bioware.
NWN2 had fully voiced companions and enhanced cinematics
NWN2 had a approval system and romances with the companions - NWN romances were with plotline NPCs
NWN2 had different prestige classes than NWN
NWN2 has a dynamic epilogue (NWN had a set epilogue, regardless of alignment)


NWN1 and NWN2 similarities
NWN2 used an enhanced Aurora engine, the same engine used to build NWN.
NWN2 and NWN used the same Dungeon and Dragons 3/3.5 edition ruleset and combat rules are inherently the same
NWN and NWN2 whereabouts are similar (both have at least 1 chapter within the city itself)
NWN and NWN2 story unfolds in a similar fashion than NWN (through several chapters)


DA:O and DA:2 similaries
They both happen in the same world
Both run under the Eclipse engine, albeit DA:2 running an enhanced version
classes remain the same

DA:O and DA:2 differences
Approval system replaced by the rivalry system
Romances fling both ways for each romanceable characters
DA:O has several races and backgrounds to pick from
DA:O and DA:2 are located in 2 different geographic locations (even if Lothering is mentionned, you never actually step on any location where the warden presumably went)
DA:O and DA:2 combat is dramatically different:
-DA:2 class skill trees are completely revamped
- DA:2 introduce spawning waves of enemies
- DA:2 introduce the awesome button responsiveness in combat
- (etc)
- Companion armor is now static
DA:2 storyline is a framed narrative, DA:O is more an omniscient 3rd person invisible storyteller
Dialog Wheel
and I could go on

Back to the point I want to convey; Neverwinter Nights 2 received a very bad reception when it was released. People disliked the story, the game was buggy, graphics were demanding albeit of their quality, and I could go on. Despite this, there wasn't much in NWN2 that was different and yet, people felt betrayed, dissapointed and disgusted.

Obsidian took the feedback and released mask of the betrayer as an expansion. There were massive improvements between NWN2 and its expansion, but its scores remained quite low (and I think that it was undeserved). But the harm was done; people were displeased of NWN2 and they refused to reconciliate with Obsidian on that game.

The good thing for Bioware then, was that Bioware didn't take flak from that failure at all. The blame was all Obsidian's, and people kept praising how great and amazing Bioware and their games were.

Back to Dragon Age. One inherent issue: there are far too many dramatic changes between the 2 games. That alone should've been a clear warning that this was not a going to work out really well. A few little changes from NWN to NWN2 were enough to dissapoint a lot of players. Why all the Bioware interviews say "we did not expect that (certain changes) would be such a big deal"? Was there not anything learned from the past?

The difference today is that there's no Obsidian to put the blame on. It's Bioware's own decisions (not EA); they boldly point their finger in a direction where the grass looked greener and aimed there but at the expense of an already well etablished customer segment.

I wish them a Dragon Age 3, but they seriously need to target the player base they want to reach instead of throwing sand in the eyes of the DA:O/BG lovers. If they say DA:3 will appeal to people that liked DA:2, I won't be buying it, or at least not until it's like 19 bucks.

[Vicious]

Combat in DA2 sucked. DA:O's combat was yes, slow, but getting cut with a sword actually f--ing mattered, I swing my 2 handed sword, it lands, and I rip off a big chunk of the enemy's life bar.

wheras I play DA2 in the recommended 'hard' difficulty and it takes 15 swings from my zweihander to drop weak foes. And worse, they generally don't even react to it.

It has nothing to do with speed and everything to do with the 'feel' and DA2's feel was a step backwards from 'dark fantasy' while the story was a step forward.

But failed to be noticed or realized, as usual.

Meh.

Modifié par Vicious, 15 avril 2011 - 01:06 .

[GammaRayJim]

Otterwarden wrote...

Well, I posted this in the "what stage are you thread last night" and I see that my impressions are once again reinforced with this most recent interview in this thread.

With DA, I've reach the stage of acceptance. Nothing written convinces me that the team in place can/will make the changes that would be necessary for me personally to enjoy the series.

Edit: Found this recent review very interesting in that the author was rather harsh on DA2:

www.destructoid.com/the-final-preview-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings-198746.phtml

I'll just pull out a couple of lines from that preview:

"Then you have games like Dragon Age II that streamline the more hardcore elements to provide a more polished experience, but at the same time restrict your freedom in terms of customizability and things like crafting."

"Instead of having a tiresome chain of events explained to you, the game expects you to figure out what exactly is going on by just dealing with present events and by paying attention to key characters that shed light on the situation at hand. It's a refreshing take on the old narrative structure we've grown accustomed to in RPGs, for sure."

"That's the kind of scope you're going to have to expect from this game with regard to choice and consequence. Some consequences may be easy to anticipate when you are given a choice. Other choices may affects things you weren't even aware of. It appears that The Witcher 2 attempts to weave a magical tapestry of non-linear interactive storytelling throughout the entire game. And from the looks of it, it does so without making it as obvious as in other games."

"I knew I should keep my eye on The Witcher 2 even before I first saw it in action last year, but now that I've finally played it I feel confident enough to say that as a PC owner you're not likely to find anything like it all year. Sorry Hawke, but your cardboard persona is about to be witched in half."

If we get enough comparisons like this maybe Laidlaw will finally take his hands off his ears.

Thanks for the link this is my favorite quote form the reveiw.

"I looked back on my experience with Dragon Age II afterwards, and BioWare's fantasy RPG now feels like it's in almost every way a mere toddler in the shadow of The Witcher 2. That's not to say DA II sucked, but a single village in The Witcher 2 already has more personality than all of Kirkwall. Moreover, the politics now run deep without treating you like a child for once."

I loved the Dragon Age franchise I bought everything but "Darkspawn Chronicles" and for the first time ever pre-ordered a game...DA2. But this one quote says it all for me this is how I feel when I say or hear dumb downed. I am looking forward to Witcher 2 because I like the concept of not being treated like a child, I play video games but I am not a child and will not be treated as such.

[Vicious]

I think we all know Witcher 2 will be superior, and a lot of that will be not treating the player like a child and dealing with mature themes in a mature manner.

Also, way better graphics.

[Otterwarden]

GammaRayJim wrote...

Thanks for the link this is my favorite quote form the reveiw.

"I looked back on my experience with Dragon Age II afterwards, and BioWare's fantasy RPG now feels like it's in almost every way a mere toddler in the shadow of The Witcher 2. That's not to say DA II sucked, but a single village in The Witcher 2 already has more personality than all of Kirkwall. Moreover, the politics now run deep without treating you like a child for once."

That's the one!! I remembered that quote, but couldn't seem to find it tonight as I must be tired.  It was my favorite as well... can't wait to not be patronized.

[jds1bio]

Thanks for the Witcher link, I had to skim it because I don't want to spoil it for myself. But the author does admit he didn't play The Witcher as much as he liked. If he had, he would have appreciated the way the game convinces you that your main-story choices mattered even though the story events are immutable. Something DA2 did not pull off successfully.

But then again, I can't tell you how many glowing previews I've read, and then the game review gives the game a "meh". We'll see next month.

[toggled]

I would suggest that they play on Hard, frankly.

Um. The problem isn't that the game is too hard or too easy. The problem is that the game is shallow and dull. Bad decisions were made early in game development, and the product was rushed.

[Miashi]

jds1bio wrote...

Thanks for the Witcher link, I had to skim it because I don't want to spoil it for myself. But the author does admit he didn't play The Witcher as much as he liked. If he had, he would have appreciated the way the game convinces you that your main-story choices mattered even though the story events are immutable. Something DA2 did not pull off successfully.

But then again, I can't tell you how many glowing previews I've read, and then the game review gives the game a "meh". We'll see next month.

I've bought the first one after I finished DA:2. So far in 2 chapters in a half it quenched my RPG fix better than 2 DA:2 gameplays.

Oh and Geralt looks ****ing hot.

[Tommy6860]

Otterwarden wrote...

Well, I posted this in the "what stage are you thread last night" and I see that my impressions are once again reinforced with this most recent interview in this thread.

With DA, I've reach the stage of acceptance. Nothing written convinces me that the team in place can/will make the changes that would be necessary for me personally to enjoy the series.

Edit: Found this recent review very interesting in that the author was rather harsh on DA2:

www.destructoid.com/the-final-preview-the-witcher-2-assassins-of-kings-198746.phtml

I'll just pull out a couple of lines from that preview:

"Then you have games like Dragon Age II that streamline the more hardcore elements to provide a more polished experience, but at the same time restrict your freedom in terms of customizability and things like crafting."

"Instead of having a tiresome chain of events explained to you, the game expects you to figure out what exactly is going on by just dealing with present events and by paying attention to key characters that shed light on the situation at hand. It's a refreshing take on the old narrative structure we've grown accustomed to in RPGs, for sure."

"That's the kind of scope you're going to have to expect from this game with regard to choice and consequence. Some consequences may be easy to anticipate when you are given a choice. Other choices may affects things you weren't even aware of. It appears that The Witcher 2 attempts to weave a magical tapestry of non-linear interactive storytelling throughout the entire game. And from the looks of it, it does so without making it as obvious as in other games."

"I knew I should keep my eye on The Witcher 2 even before I first saw it in action last year, but now that I've finally played it I feel confident enough to say that as a PC owner you're not likely to find anything like it all year. Sorry Hawke, but your cardboard persona is about to be witched in half."

If we get enough comparisons like this maybe Laidlaw will finally take his hands off his ears.

Good preview and synopsis, but in all honesty, I take game (p)reviews from sites that are ad-dollar supported with a grain of salt. Not to say that TW2 isn't a pruchase for me, it definitely is. But in the end, it is how the game plays. I loved TW, but I absolutely abhorred the fact that I was stuck with a male PC in one race. It just doesn't fit my premise of an RPG and especially one that deals in medieval lore. I nearly always want to play female characters, though I am a male, only because playing a male, I generally know what to expect from the NPC/companion encounters in RPGs. And male characters have more than typically been the the norm in any kind of story telling game, book, etc, until the contemporary views among gender bias has eased a great deal with more liberal thinking . I like the perspective of the other gender because I don't have my male persona stuck in mind and it makes the game more eclectic in experience.

In any case, I am getting the game and I am sure the story will mesh out with very decent RPG elements, and that's at least something that DA2 can even come close to saying it does.

[MSUHitman]

Problem is people like me with ancient PC's can't play The Witcher. I'm sitting on a copy of The Witcher Enhanced Edition I got for $20 at Walmart and I can't play that (my PC was originally built from scratch in Sept. 03.)

Someday when I get a more modern PC I'll be able to play the 2 Witcher games but in the meantime I will have to be satisfied with what Bioware does, no matter how buggy it is.

[Miashi]

MSUHitman wrote...

Problem is people like me with ancient PC's can't play The Witcher. I'm sitting on a copy of The Witcher Enhanced Edition I got for $20 at Walmart and I can't play that (my PC was originally built from scratch in Sept. 03.)

Someday when I get a more modern PC I'll be able to play the 2 Witcher games but in the meantime I will have to be satisfied with what Bioware does, no matter how buggy it is.

Rumor has it they want to possibly port it to consoles - as a matter of
fact the game can be played with a controller on the PC. If you own a
console, then you might have you chance - who knows

[GammaRayJim]

That's so true jds1bio but like Vicious said the maturity is there and the graphics are way better. I think seven hours of play time would offer enough to give a fair an objective review. Unlike our 1 hours worth of a demo, I know now why the inventory was disabled not because it was just a demo, after seeing the uproar of not being able to customize your companions it makes much more sense.

[steve3194]

 im happy to hear that they don't have any intentions of slowing down the combat.Thats from a console gamers perspective,dont really care about what they do to pc.Would be cool if they could keep it fast paced for console and slow if down if necessary for pc

Modifié par steve3194, 15 avril 2011 - 01:31 .

[thatbwoyblu]

Why isnt this trash mob thread locked yet? Dead Ass I feel sorry for Mr. Mike because he has to constantly get bashed in the head with old peoples canes. Mike if you read this keep up the good work my dude me and a lot of other people love Dragon Age 2 more than that one and done game DAO. I can play DA 2 3 times straight if I had the time where as I can only play DAO once. Just start making killer games for consoles Mr. Mike and all these old haggard P.C. players will move on and allow us DA 2 lovers peace.

[Jaron Oberyn]

Haha, this guy doesn't give up. I just love his play it on hard comment. What a way to flick off your original fan base.

thatbwoyblu wrote...

Why isnt this trash mob thread locked
yet? Dead Ass I feel sorry for Mr. Mike because he has to constantly
get bashed in the head with old peoples canes. Mike if you read this
keep up the good work my dude me and a lot of other people love Dragon
Age 2 more than that one and done game DAO. I can play DA 2 3 times
straight if I had the time where as I can only play DAO once. Just
start making killer games for consoles Mr. Mike and all these old
haggard P.C. players will move on and allow us DA 2 lovers
peace.

Because this isn't the Bungie forums where every
single thread criticizing their games is locked. Or at least it isn't
yet. I can't say for sure with Mr. Woo who seems to be doing just that
from time to time.



-Polite

Modifié par PoliteAssasin, 15 avril 2011 - 01:34 .

[Otterwarden]

Tommy6860 wrote...

Good preview and synopsis, but in all honesty, I take game (p)reviews from sites that are ad-dollar supported with a grain of salt. Not to say that TW2 isn't a pruchase for me, it definitely is. But in the end, it is how the game plays. I loved TW, but I absolutely abhorred the fact that I was stuck with a male PC in one race. It just doesn't fit my premise of an RPG and especially one that deals in medieval lore. I nearly always want to play female characters, though I am a male, only because playing a male, I generally know what to expect from the NPC/companion encounters in RPGs. And male characters have more than typically been the the norm in any kind of story telling game, book, etc, until the contemporary views among gender bias has eased a great deal with more liberal thinking . I like the perspective of the other gender because I don't have my male persona stuck in mind and it makes the game more eclectic in experience.

In any case, I am getting the game and I am sure the story will mesh out with very decent RPG elements, and that's at least something that DA2 can even come close to saying it does.

Like the poster above, I skimmed over a lot because I don't want to be too well informed.  Haven't really read much on it, but I have followed the developer interviews.  They are quite interesting, especially as they are done in Polish.  The way things are discussed tells me that they are taking this in a direction that will satisfy me, so I want to encourage them in this quest.  When I did the same with the DA2 team interviews all I heard was "button awesome" and I immediately sensed a disconnect.  It was like being in the audience and having to turn around to see who Laidlaw was talking to... couldn't be me?

I also role play opposite sex.  "Geralta" would have been less appealing, so I do understand what you are saying.

It wasn't so much the positive preview that struck me, but rather the negative post impression that DA2 left.  You can tell that the author did not really enjoy that game.

Modifié par Otterwarden, 15 avril 2011 - 01:38 .

[Tommy6860]

Otterwarden wrote...

Tommy6860 wrote...

Good preview and synopsis, but in all honesty, I take game (p)reviews from sites that are ad-dollar supported with a grain of salt. Not to say that TW2 isn't a pruchase for me, it definitely is. But in the end, it is how the game plays. I loved TW, but I absolutely abhorred the fact that I was stuck with a male PC in one race. It just doesn't fit my premise of an RPG and especially one that deals in medieval lore. I nearly always want to play female characters, though I am a male, only because playing a male, I generally know what to expect from the NPC/companion encounters in RPGs. And male characters have more than typically been the the norm in any kind of story telling game, book, etc, until the contemporary views among gender bias has eased a great deal with more liberal thinking . I like the perspective of the other gender because I don't have my male persona stuck in mind and it makes the game more eclectic in experience.

In any case, I am getting the game and I am sure the story will mesh out with very decent RPG elements, and that's at least something that DA2 can even come close to saying it does.

It wasn't so much the positive preview that struck me, but rather the negative post impression that DA2 left.  You can tell that the author did not really enjoy that game.

I hear you, at this point, COD:MW would have just as much appeal as an RPG as to what taste DA2 left in my mouth, and COD was button mashing awesome (in multiplayer anyway).

[GammaRayJim]

thatbwoyblu wrote...

Why isnt this trash mob thread locked yet? Dead Ass I feel sorry for Mr. Mike because he has to constantly get bashed in the head with old peoples canes. Mike if you read this keep up the good work my dude me and a lot of other people love Dragon Age 2 more than that one and done game DAO. I can play DA 2 3 times straight if I had the time where as I can only play DAO once. Just start making killer games for consoles Mr. Mike and all these old haggard P.C. players will move on and allow us DA 2 lovers peace.

Wow but you have no DA2 game registered and you have 5 playthroughs of DA:O on your profile. 

[jds1bio]

Bostur wrote...


One thing that makes me a bit emotional about the interviews he made, is that he doesn't seem to like traditional RPGs much.
I like developers who are enthusiastic about what they make, Laidlaw
doesn't seem particularly enthusiastic about DA2, and in many cases he
seems to think that DAO was a huge failure. As a fan of the genre that
strikes me as being a bit odd.

Also the many times he said that
crtitics can't cope with change is almost personally insulting. That
seems to be the company line, and the official response to critique.

Thanks for responding.  I think you've helped me figure out why there is so much vitriol here surrounding one person - the bolded text above.  It's as if people are saying "He's not one of us."  Which is rather frightening, in a pitchfork-mob sort of way.

I think in this day and age there are many people who cannot cope with change OR criticism.  Lots of them are on these forums, and often their first-instinct response to change or criticism is to insult others. 

But he's right, some critics can't cope with change.  Some can only frame things in terms of Call-Of-Duty or World-Of-Warcraft.  Some can only give each game the same exact amount of playtime before calling it a review.  Some go out of their way to echo (and then spar with afterwards) their own comment forums just to get more hits.  And I think the older the critic, the worse it seems. Too many life changes in the span of 5 or 10 years can make you long for some constants in your life, and what better place to look for constancy than one of your favorite things - videogaming.  Except videogaming (and the demographic that participates) has always been fluid, not a set-in-stone solid.

Modifié par jds1bio, 15 avril 2011 - 01:47 .

[Miashi]

You don't have to register the game key on the site to play it - I played the xbox version for a bit until I actually registered my game on the site.

edit: actually I only registered it because it allowed me to post on game owner forums - otherwise I had access to all my dlc content since my xbox360 tag is attached to this account.

Modifié par Miashi, 15 avril 2011 - 01:50 .