It's ok with Hawke though :D


I don't know which EA rushjob is worse, C&C4 or DA2?

I'll probably put C&C4 as top most horrible, DA2 2nd runner up.

You know. At least with C&C4 we kind of knew what to expect and it wasn't long after the games release that there was discontent from pepole invovled. It wasn't long after that that EA admitted it was a disaster.

In the case of DA2 what worries me most is people like Mike Laidlaw and now the lead level designer all seemingly happy they made the right decisions. DA2 has scored and average and I believe fair mark of 7/10 so the critics are in agreement that its nowhere near as good as Origins which was a GOTY contender. Yet we hear Bioware saying they are pleased with the reviews (and they keep bringing up PC Gamers 94%) and they are 'surprised' that the copied levels were such an issue.

At the time I am writing this the game has sold ~550k copies on Consoles and 175k PC retail (which naturally doesn't include digital distribution). Call me mad but isn't that a disaster? especially given a lot of those sales were probably pre-orders.

It's still fairly early after release. It's PR spin. They're not going to say anything bad about the game yet, since it still might affect sales if they say they screwed up. I'm reserving judgment on whether they have their heads firmly planted up their nether regions until I see what they say a couple months down the road. If they're still claiming it's a great success, there are few issues with the game redesign, and they made all the right decisions then I'll be thinking they're on some powerful meds.

*Spoilers*
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They walk about the outskirts, yes, but i think Kirkwall itself it's a different matter, that was the whole point about the Viscount 'gifting' them the Compound. Sanctioned teams/delegations coming and going could do so under 'friendly' escort and for the more 'covert' stuff, assuming the Qun even allows covert stuff, they could always use small boats to leave the compound without going into the city. I guess another playthrough would be useful to try and pay more attention to some of these details and stuff overlooked the first time around, but sadly at my end that ain't happening.

In any case, i'm not disagreeing with you on the overall railroading thing, it's just that personnaly i thought that the railroading feeling in this particular quest as a whole relates more with the inflexibility of the Qun than with anything else.

I think we all know that once someone admits DA3 is in development then they will quickly move to say how much they disliked DA2 and hope to improve it. They pretty much did that with Origins. Despite the fact Origins won numerous awards, scooped high critic and fan praise and sold well on all three formats Laidlaw has continually bashed it while talking up the 'improvements' in DA2. This is why I am demanding some kind of drug testing at Bioware Edmonton because you don't slam a product you made when the majority actually liked it. One wonders if Laidlaw himself actually liked Origins.
I'm not disagreeing with you either. I would be lying if I said I paid attention to everything. After the 4th respawning wave of thugs I find it hard to pay attention to anything. I guess all I am saying is given more developent time and if DA2 had been paid as much attention as Origins they probably would have provided many more options and outcomes to these quests. As it is it seems Bioware was totally focussed on Mass Effect, in fact I will probably play Arrival more times than I will play DA2. If ME3 is also of this dubious quality then you have to wonder just where Bioware are putting all their effort these days.

I think maybe he's too caught up in the idea of 'press a button and something awesome happens'. While that's all well and good, I think he's lost sight of the fact that the awesome comes from the overall package, not just a button press.

His latest excuse that Kirkwall is a ghosttown being down to console limitations seems to be getting people rather riled up. He even said they wanted to give the feeling of a living city like GTA or Assassins' Creed. Gah? Those are console games are they not? The improved atmosphere mod for DA:O added random scripting for town NPC's bringing life to the towns with absolutely no performance hit. He seems to be using the console excuse now to excuse the fact they just didn't have the time to do the scripting.

Keep Laidlaw away from it and it already stands a good chance of being a decent game at least ;)

You have to wonder the wisdom of putting a guy in charge who clearly wants to be working on Mass Effect. I expect his idea of gaming nirvana is Bayonetta which really does have an awsome button.

I saw that. I... don't know what to say. Someone on the BioWare boards suggested (well, it was actually a ranting insult, but buried in there was) that the DA game engine must be poorly coded if it can't handle more NPCs in the city.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/8730-Critical-Miss-Erin-Hawke-Explorer

:P

I've noticed that's two comics The Escapist have done poking fun at DA2. Makes you wonder why they scored it 5/5.

Seriously.

Hello,

I dont understand whole the fuzz about Dragon Age 2. I am playing it for some hours now and feels like Dragon Age Origins 1 from the start. perhaps a bit more action oriented in the battles, but hey who cares about battles in a bioware game :). Bioware games are about interracial sex not about tactical epic confrontation. when i need a epic battle i mess around with my wife.

Have a nice galactic conquest.

The Escapist isn't one group of people or opinions. I bet you money that Zero Punctuation will rip it a new one. I also bet the two guys that write Critical Miss didn't like Dragon Age 2. And you know what? They have good points.