39 replies to this topic

[vilkacis]

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/

Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.

Key Features:

• Embark upon an all-new adventure that takes place across an entire decade and shapes itself around every decision you make.
  
• Determine your rise to power from a destitute refugee to the revered champion of the land.
  
• Think like a general and fight like a Spartan with dynamic new combat mechanics that put you right in the heart of battle whether you are a mage, rogue, or warrior.
  
• Go deeper into the world of Dragon Age with an entirely new cinematic experience that grabs hold of you from the beginning and never lets go.
  
• Discover a whole realm rendered in stunning detail with updated graphics and a new visual style.

Also this

... revolutionizing the genre again, infusing the universe with more action, a new, more responsive combat system and a dynamic story that is already among the most multifaceted in gaming.
...
Dragon Age 2 thrusts players into the role of Hawke, a penniless refugee who rises to power to become the single most important character in the world of Dragon Age. Known to be a survivor of the Blight and the Champion of Kirkwall, the legend around Hawke?s rise to power is shrouded in myth and rumor. Featuring an all-new story spanning 10 years, players will help tell that tale by making tough moral choices, gathering the deadliest of allies, amassing fame and fortune, and sealing their place in history. The way you play will write the story of how the world is changed forever.

So basically we're Commander Shepard again. In SPACE NOT_SPACE. Also he is definitely not a Bhaalspawn or anything.

...elves suck anyway, good riddance.

Edit: now with ~*~fanart~*~

Edited by vilkacis, 08 July 2010 - 12:33 PM.

[Kaeloree]

At first I thought this was a joke.

Sorry, BioWare, but... it's gonna take you a while to convince me to play this one. And I've always liked your games straight up.

Maybe we should take a break until Mass Effect 3.

[berelinde]

Yeah, not liking the whole Shepherd Hawke thing. I wonder if you get to pick your class or if they're going to make you play one of their choosing. At least you get to pick your gender.

If all it is is that we're assigned a pre-named human protagonist, I can deal with that. Hey, I still like BG/BG2, and that gives you a preset backstory. And if they had to assign a race to you, I would rather be human than either of the other playable races. I wonder how much physical customization we'll have.

I wonder if there will be romance.

[Eleima]

I find it hard to get excited about this one. The "Hawke" concept isn't all too appealing to me, and I wonder in which direction this is going to develop. Wait and see I guess...

[vilkacis]

Didn't you know? This is the new shit.

...really, I'm mostly just disappointed that there's sodamn little info. They have two pieces of artwork up. No trailer. No screens. Nothing. It's like the worst announcment ever.

ed:

I wonder how much physical customization we'll have.

I'm guessing it'll be just about the same level as the original game or ME. I can't think of much reason not to do this, and I think their fanbase expects it.

I wonder if there will be romance.

Yes, but it will be awful.

Edited by vilkacis, 08 July 2010 - 12:50 PM.

[Cal Jones]

I guess they will drip feed us information.

I'm not disappointed about being human - I prefer to play humans anyway. You can at least pick your gender. I imagine you can pick your class too (after all, you can pick your class for Shepard - so there's not logical reason why they would go out of their way to annoy the Dragon Age fans by sticking you with a specific class).

I'm also not disappointed you won't be playing the Warden. A clean slate is good, and I guess they learned from ME that trying to account for every choice you made in the first game is quite hard to carry over. With Shepard, you defeated Sovereign either way. With the Warden, you could be dead, you could be consort to Alistair or Anora, you could be chancellor, various companions could be either dead or alive and all sorts of other stuff...continuity nightmare. Still, some closure would be nice.

[Solar's Harper]

I don't know about everyone else, but this just made my laugh of the morning.

So let'see, they're sticking with the ME formula, but spanning it over a decade thus negating any elements of a feasibly understandable sandbox game (which losing would not be too heart-breaking, but still) as compared to the predecessors - unless of course they sequel/DLC it to death like ME is. This scream Assassin's Creed groupie to anyone?

In all honesty, the lack of spam trailers is at least a sign they might've realized that it might not be a good idea to indulge the impulse most developers tend to feel when they're supposedly creating the most awesome thing ever. That, or their damn advertising budget blew a sizeable hole in profits.
Besides it's not like we'd be missing out on much since their trailers for Dragon Age have really only emphasized on one of two things: murder-death-kill, and sex - in no particular order and often together, with the so-called intrigue a distant disowned cousin.

Don't know about anyone else, but that's just crude advertising at it's premium, not to mention they fail at stopping themselves from giving away half the damn plot...

Also, Sparta? Sparta?! THIS IS SPARTA!
Sorry, I couldn't resist folks.


Anyway, far as the plot overview is concerned, I see one big major problem with it. Player-egoism.

Sure in BG you're demi-godspawn, in Planescape you're practically immortal undead, NWN1 you're the only blasted person with a brain in their skull, etc etc.
Point is, this kind of thing is what can really kill plots before they're even born, especially if it lacks the proper context to support it.

Of course, considering they've managed to "barely" side-step this before, with the exception of player emails and, ME2 Shepard's obscenely powerful right elbow thrust and what-not... I'd think this kind of thought would be more a reaction to the wording than anything else. Of course I'm nothing if not a pessimist until proven otherwise, damned if I'm going to give them a 10/10 for splodge paintings. So unclean, hmph!

Edited by Solar's Harper, 08 July 2010 - 01:59 PM.

[Philiposophy]

Playing as someone other than the Warden isn't necessarily a negative. The Blight and the Archdemon were dealt with in Origins, so it would feel like it was stretching it to have a Grey Warden dealing with all the other problems in the world. Plus there's the problem of possibly being dead. Even if they survived, they've got the task of being the Warden Commander in Ferelden, so all their time will be taken up by basically doing what Duncan did before he died.


Also, if the protagonist's surname is Hawke, I will be tempted to call him "Ebon"...

Edited by Philiposophy, 08 July 2010 - 03:05 PM.

[theacefes]

I think they made a mistake in putting so much advertising in for DA:O, because when it actually came out, it looked like crap compared to what the trailers showed. So honestly, I'm happy with what they've given us because I don't have as much to look forward to.

And I personally like the Mass Effect character system and it did well for Bioware, so I wouldn't be surprised if this does well too.

[Cal Jones]

Phil - heh, there was a girl on Bioware forums posted that she'd call her femme Hawke Ebony.

[Lysan Lurraxol]

Unless the writing team has significantly improved since the first game, I will not be touching this. Especially as it looks like Bioware will waste most of the game gathering allies again. since that was such a worthwhile and exciting endeavor in DA:O

I do like the idea of a pre-defined character, so long as they're voiced. It's partly a fault of the incredibly generic writing in DA:O, but my protagonists never felt anything other than a cardboard cut-out; voicing might help alleviate that problem.

[Archmage Silver]

I was really stunned when I first read the EA press release, it just didn't seem real. Why take away one of the most meaningful choices in the game? Even if I buy this, I'm pretty sure there will be others who won't, simply because you're restricted to playing a preset character.

In my opinion Shepard is a good fit for the ME series, but Dragon Age II was supposed to be a pure RPG, not an Action RPG.

I'm still looking forward to Dragon Age II though, but not with the same anticipation as before. I'll probably end up liking it, but it would sound so much better without Hawke. And now I'm suspicious about Hawke's voice actor being the "new shit".

Regardless of this, I've started the Dragon Age II News thread, which contains all the information released so far. Check it out and feel free to post any DA II related news you come across.

Quick facts about Hawke:

• You can choose your class (mage, warrior, rogue)
  
• You can choose your gender
  
• You can customize your physical appearance

Edited by Archmage Silver, 09 July 2010 - 05:18 AM.

[Picollo]

Why You focused only on thing, that we're able to play only as a human? Of course, there was more choices in DA with all origins. But now they written about extremly interesting feature. Adventure is suposed to be played across decade. Now it gives possibility to even better show consequences of our choices. And if story will be as good as it was id DA, that's enough for me.

[Vicen]

Well this is either going to be the best thing since sliced bread...or the worse thing since the black death...I do have faith in Bioware however as they really have not let me down even once in their games...So hopefully despite what have been said and showed it will be quite good!

[Archmage Silver]

Why You focused only on thing, that we're able to play only as a human? Of course, there was more choices in DA with all origins. But now they written about extremly interesting feature. Adventure is suposed to be played across decade. Now it gives possibility to even better show consequences of our choices. And if story will be as good as it was id DA, that's enough for me.

Are you suggesting that adding a new feature will make up for removing one of the most integral parts of the game? That line will only work if you don't care about having a custom protagonist, and I dare say most of us do care.

[Picollo]

Why You focused only on thing, that we're able to play only as a human? Of course, there was more choices in DA with all origins. But now they written about extremly interesting feature. Adventure is suposed to be played across decade. Now it gives possibility to even better show consequences of our choices. And if story will be as good as it was id DA, that's enough for me.

Are you suggesting that adding a new feature will make up for removing one of the most integral parts of the game? That line will only work if you don't care about having a custom protagonist, and I dare say most of us do care.

Not exacly. It just looked like You were focusing only on one elelment of whole news. Juts as I remember most time limiting possible choices of race/class combinations wasn't wrong for game. PS:T, Gothic, Witcher, and probably some more... All of them had been limiting creating character, but it wasn't bad. And for me comparing two of arguments, that we're talking about, I'm just sugesting, that not necessairly this limitation will be something bad for DA2. It will probably allow BioWare to voice all dialogue lines of protagonist.

And I think, that main feature in DA:O wasn't Origins (or maybe they were only big part of this feature) but rather choices, and consequences of them. There was almost none game with so much importance of our choices. And thoose choices will remain. But in little diffrent form.

[Archmage Silver]

Why You focused only on thing, that we're able to play only as a human? Of course, there was more choices in DA with all origins. But now they written about extremly interesting feature. Adventure is suposed to be played across decade. Now it gives possibility to even better show consequences of our choices. And if story will be as good as it was id DA, that's enough for me.

Are you suggesting that adding a new feature will make up for removing one of the most integral parts of the game? That line will only work if you don't care about having a custom protagonist, and I dare say most of us do care.

Not exacly. It just looked like You were focusing only on one elelment of whole news. Juts as I remember most time limiting possible choices of race/class combinations wasn't wrong for game. PS:T, Gothic, Witcher, and probably some more... All of them had been limiting creating character, but it wasn't bad. And for me comparing two of arguments, that we're talking about, I'm just sugesting, that not necessairly this limitation will be something bad for DA2. It will probably allow BioWare to voice all dialogue lines of protagonist.

And I think, that main feature in DA:O wasn't Origins (or maybe they were only big part of this feature) but rather choices, and consequences of them. There was almost none game with so much importance of our choices. And thoose choices will remain. But in little diffrent form.

Considering how little we know about the game yet, focusing on Hawke first seems logical, considering how much Hawke changes the game and its story. For a more complete look into things, check out the the Dragon Age II News thread I posted. I'm sure the other facets of the game will come up in the discussion later on, but right Hawke is the topic of the day for a good reason.

Out PS:T, Gothic and Witcher, the only one I actually like is PS:T, and that's because it has superb writing when compared to any other RPG title with a preset main character. I find Gothic and Witcher very uninteresting. Plus when you take into account that those two game series had a preset character to begin with, it only makes the change in DA II seem more odd, unless you accept the offered explanation of BioWare wanting to have a fully-voiced PC to be the only reason for the change.

As for the choices in DA, the different Origins tied into those in a huge way, so removing the Origin stories in DA II seems like going backwards. The replay value of the game has already dropped due to the absence of other playable races & Origins. I'm not saying the game won't be good, or that the new features won't be interesting to have, but I'm saying that it would definitely be more to my liking without a preset character. I'm pretty sure it won't be cabable of outdoing Planescape: Torment's writing, not with the amount of work they have to put into other aspects of the game.

Edit: Typo

Edited by Archmage Silver, 09 July 2010 - 06:13 AM.

[berelinde]

I don't think anybody at EA is interested in replayability. They want you to play the game once and go out and buy another game.

[Archmage Silver]

I don't think anybody at EA is interested in replayability. They want you to play the game once and go out and buy another game.

Generally speaking, that's what every publisher thinks. I don't know how BioWare will turn out for EA in the long run though.

Edited by Archmage Silver, 09 July 2010 - 07:37 AM.

[Solar's Harper]

Adventure is suposed to be played across decade. Now it gives possibility to even better show consequences of our choices.

Ah yes, consequences. The profound effect upon any action taken in a setting around the player. Didn't we dismiss that claim?

(Not *exactly* the same, but still eat your hearts out ME fans )


The problem with this is that the so-called adventure across a decade, apart from player-egoism (MMORPG fever?), is that many of the so-called elements that defined their running theme of recent years, will invariably be as linear as their DLC line-ups. You see, unless they're prepared to spend a lot of time, effort, and money on it, which judging from estimates does not seem to be the case, what you're essentially looking at is a rubber duck that barks instead of an actual duck.

Now you may be thinking: how would that be possible, we have *years* to experience.

Simple really, pre-determined actions leading to a pre-determined result, especially around the major decisions - generally one liners, big boss fight, everyone goes to Disneyland in slow mode off camera style.
Ergo: Look at anything in the same genre or better yet in the adventure genre and you'll get exactly the same thing. Revolutionizing, feh!

Also since I doubt this'll be the last title they'll release it'll also mean they're going canon with at least one or all of them.
This'll become particularly evident if they intend to release in such small space in-between, we all remember how long it took the first one to be released don't we?

Edited by Solar's Harper, 09 July 2010 - 07:40 AM.