658 replies to this topic

[Archmage Silver]

David Gaider answers early critics at the social forums. [Source Dragocalypse Now!]

I would suggest that you wait to hear exactly what our approach is before trying to figure out whether it's what you're interested in or not.

People appear to be acting as if the scant details we've revealed are all they'll ever learn about the game ever, and they're thus required to render judgment immediately.

You're really not. You might, in fact, want to see exactly how we're implementing these features you dislike and seeing for yourself whether they differ from, say, Mass Effect's. There are similarities, of course, but there are also differences... and to assume you know everything about how the game is going to feel based off the most cursory of information is just going to make you look foolish.

Perhaps in the end DA2 won't be for you after all. That's fair. You should be able to judge prior to actually playing it-- there will be information galore available prior to its release, I'm sure. But if you want to have questions asking the "why" regarding our approach taken seriously, it might be sensible to wait and see what that approach is first.

Mike Laidlaw on 10 years of story. [Source]

A decade of history does offer a lot of potential, doesn't it? You could tell a mighty deep story in that period of time.

Perhaps we shall do just that!

[Yovaneth]

Edit: I should really read the rest of the thread before adding fatuous comments!!!

-Y-

Edited by Yovaneth, 12 July 2010 - 01:47 AM.

[Archmage Silver]

The bolded part says it all.

According to Dr. Ray Muzyka, senior vice president of EA and co-founder of BioWare, "Dragon Age 2 will simultaneously deliver an epic story and set a new bar for intense action in the genre."

First Dragon Age II Details Take Flight @ Game Informer

[Archmage Silver]

New concept art has been released for Dragon Age II. [Source]

[KIrving]

Well seeing as it is concept art I suppose I can overlook the cartoon faces. So any word on whether that top picture is a potential female Hawke or is it an npc follower or evil BQ (doer) that one must fight to save the world?

I think it's goodbye to rpg's as we have known them unless smaller companies step up or Independent designers dive into the creative niche. So now we get to Jack Bauer or Jason Bourne our way through DA2. Yuck! I'm surprised they are going to give the option of a female Hawke. Still it's early days yet, the female part will probably get cut due to a lack of resources with the modding community expected to provide the, paid for DLC, option. I'm trying to find a positive but my cynical hat is stuck to my head. Oooh...I know a positive! More time to play BG.


Edit - I'm tempted to speculate that there will be guns and possibly.....flying cars. Hmmm..if there are actual flying cars I might be unable to resist.

Edited by KIrving, 13 July 2010 - 05:44 PM.

[Archmage Silver]

No word on whether it's female Hawke or someone else, just a lot of speculation. Your guess is as good as mine at this point.

[WeeRLegion]

Why don't we just dub her femhawke for now, and note that she's wearing something of an imitation of the Mass Effect model of Blood Dragon armor. Silly Bioware.



As for what I think of the game info thus far... On one hand, it's Bioware, and I've liked the ME games well enough, so it'll probably be worth playing at least. But still, a good bit of DAOs charm came from the diversity offered by different protagonists, and as for a cinematic experience, it wasn't quite on ME level; if they're planning to tune it more towards ME style, and plan to do it properly, and with the 10 year timeline and all the fresh promises, they'll have a fair bit of work ahead of themselves.
They had better not rush it. o_o


I'm not so much worried about the new death of traditional RPG games (which Bioware according to some accounts pretty much resurrected by themselves in the first place), death isn't necessarily permanent when it comes to entertainment genres. It's something of an shame, but luckily old school RPGs aren't the only kind of games I enjoy. o_o

[Archmage Silver]

They had better not rush it. o_o

Dragon Age II - Out in March 2011, available at a game store near you!

And no, I'm not joking. Please compare this to the time it took to develop Dragon Age: Origins. Streamlining is a bad word.

[WeeRLegion]

Now there's something I managed to miss entirely. xP

Last I heard they were talking about major graphics and technology improvements... Even if they adapted most of the cinematic tricks straight from ME2, and kept the graphics upgrades otherwise to a minimum, that still seems like a tight schedule for squeezing out 10 years of quality gametime.

Or maybe those 10 years will be a short ten years.

*sigh*

Now I'll need some serious hype before I'll ever consider pre-ordering or anything of the sort...

[Solar's Harper]

There is of course one work-around. That is only if they started to develop this whole thing years before now, or they're batman. Take your pick ladies and gents.

[Crazee]

Are these new companions? I think so. As with the build up to DA:O, the Germans always seem to get the best info, first.

Seeing the companions always makes me excited, regardless of how I feel about the game's new features.

Hawke: The male or female main character of Dragon Age 2 and leads the player through a 10-year history.

Bethany: Hawke's sister and Mage, she supports her brother (or sister?) with fire spells

Cassandra: The Inquisitor with a burning interest in exploiting Hawke.

Varric: The dwarf accompanying Hawke on his travels; he is the main narrator of Dragon Age 2.

Edited by Crazee, 14 July 2010 - 07:29 AM.

[Eleima]

Why don't we just dub her femhawke for now, and note that she's wearing something of an imitation of the Mass Effect model of Blood Dragon armor. Silly Bioware.

Yup! And the dragon picture resembles curiously concept art for the first one:

Spoiler

..........

[Cal Jones]

As someone on the Bioware boards said, it shouldn't be FemHawke, it should be LadyHawke.

[WeeRLegion]

Yup! And the dragon picture resembles curiously concept art for the first one:

I do hope the albino ogres aren't what's going to get passed as an graphics overhaul here... .p

[KIrving]

Going by the thread at BioWare it seems that the concept art of the woman in the spiky armour is Cassandra. *sigh* We probably will not see any art or screenshots of ladyhawke(nice ) until just before or after the game is released. We don't want to dilute the vapid marketing vision after all.

Those pasty ogres do not look good.

[Archmage Silver]

Are these new companions? I think so. As with the build up to DA:O, the Germans always seem to get the best info, first.

Seeing the companions always makes me excited, regardless of how I feel about the game's new features. ...

I'm not sure if they're all joinable, as the article simply says "characters". The only new bits I found in it are that every chapter has its own narrator, and that mages get finishing moves now (sounds interesting). Here are the character descriptions, I fixed some translation errors and added a few lines:

• Hawke: The male or female hero is the main character of Dragon Age II, and leads the player through the character's 10-year story.
  AMS Note: The male Hawke is most recently shown in the second screenshot, see the bottom of this post. I haven't seen any images of the female Hawke yet.
  
  
• Bethany: Hawke's sister is a mage, and supports her brother in the battle with fire spells.
  AMS Note: She's shown in the first screenshot, see the bottom of this post.
  
  
• Cassandra: The Inquisitor has a burning interest in the heroic deeds of Hawke.
  AMS Note: She's shown in the concept art, see my earlier post in this thread.
  
  
• Varric: The dwarf has accompanied Hawke on his travels, and is one of the narrators in Dragon Age II.
  AMS Note: He's shown in the concept art, see my earlier post in this thread. The google translation suggests that Varric is the only narrator in the game, which is wrong.
  
  
• Flemeth: The mighty shapeshifter and Morrigan's mother from Dragon Age: Origins is also back in Dragon Age II.
  AMS Note: The google translation is flawed, as it made it seem like Flemeth might be joinable, even though the article doesn't suggest it.

Now I'll need some serious hype before I'll ever consider pre-ordering or anything of the sort...

Ya know, the amusing part is that while I like to criticize the changes I don't like, you'll probably see me ranting about the Collector's Edition around Christmas anyway.

There is of course one work-around. That is only if they started to develop this whole thing years before now, or they're batman. Take your pick ladies and gents.

Hm. My estimate is that they've have had a separate team working on DA II from so far back, that it will actually be a two-year development process when the game is released next year. Still, when you compare it to the time used on DA: Origins... I mean there were delays, but the difference is still counted in years. Origins was announced at E3 in 2004.

Why don't we just dub her femhawke for now, and note that she's wearing something of an imitation of the Mass Effect model of Blood Dragon armor. Silly Bioware.

Yup! And the dragon picture resembles curiously concept art for the first one ...

I guess that dragon could be Flemeth if we see her again, provided that she has stolen yet another body. Or maybe we'll meet her before the Warden has had a chance to kill her in Origins.

I do hope the albino ogres aren't what's going to get passed as an graphics overhaul here... .p

Most likely not, and when it comes to graphics, it's hard to say how accurate these screenshots will be when the game is released. I like how they've gone about making the fire fx though.

[WeeRLegion]

True enough, true enough. The screenies thus far look very plain and stone-agey, prolly means they're donig an good overhaul in the department.

Fire looks good, but needs spice. Luckily they'll probably add some. @_@

[Archmage Silver]

From what I've gathered, that's some late alpha build they're showing off there, so I wouldn't worry too much about graphics at this point. And yeah, the fire fx probably aren't ready either, but I'm just saying that the base is good. There are various ways of animating fire, and that's one of the better ones.

[Archmage Silver]

News:
Dragon Age II: Timeline of Thedas @ Game Informer
Hawke Partially Written by David Gaider @ BioWare Social Forums

Flemeth

Spoiler

"This dragon is more than it appears. After swooping down and grabbing a darkspawnin its talons, it transforms into a familiar figure: Flemeth. Still holding the dead darkspawn in her hand, Flemeth walks through the flames and approaches Hawke, saying "Well, well, what have we here?"

(Source: Game Informer Article, BioWare Social Forums)

Varrick

Spoiler

The GI article implies that Varric is narrating about Lothering. He is talking to the Seeker, who wants to know "how Hawke escaped from Lothering, and Varric reluctantly tells the tale. At least, he tells the version he wants the Seeker to hear." She wants to know because she wants to understand Hawke's actions. The world is on the brink of war, and the article implies Hawke is somehow related to this. Then it shifts to Hawke's POV.

Edit, regarding multiple narrators: Also part of the article: "Narrators with unique insights into the events in question tell the tale of his [/her, meaning Hawke] past adventures." Mark Darrah says it is similar to The Usual Suspects in this regard.

(Source: Game Informer Article, BioWare Social Forums)