It's not as clear cut as that though, that's why it's hard to lay the blame completely at EA here. Especially when you realise that both the good Doctors are now EA Vice Presdents. When you take a long hard look at DA2 the problem really isn't in the execution but the overall design and that's why the Lead Designer gets his head on the chopping block. Even if the order did come down from EA that they only had 2 years and a budget of x amount then the question has to be raised why was so much time and money spent on fixing things that weren't broken? Surely if a publisher is on your back to squeeze out a sequel in bugger all time then you expand on what you have, you don't slash and burn the original and start again.

I like the overall story ideas and I like the new art design. I also like a lot of the new fast-paced combat, it's just the waves that bug me. I would actually disagree with you I guess and say most of the problems in my opinion are in the execution. The same story with real choices would be a lot better. The same combat without waves would be a lot better. The same 10 year narrative but with actual changes and new content every era would be better.

Let me put it this way: the overarching ideas were good, the design underneath that was poor and the execution was terrible.

TBH that's design. The game was designed around the attack waves and the level designer said they were happy with it. The only poor execution of the waves was in the way they would appear out of thin air. The scene in Kill Bill when people were pouring out of every door and window was great, to see the same effect 500 times not so much.

Not having any choices was a design decision, the writers can only write what they are asked to do. Again the level designer didn't think using the same cave, mansion and hideout would be an issue so again that's design.

The execution of the game seems to be fine when it seems to be exactly that the designers wanted it to be. As for the art design well some like it and some hate it but I do question the amount of time they spent changing it when they aparently knew they had very limited time and money. So the Elves in Origins were bland typical fantasy Elves, well they worked and it didn't really matter what they looked like because it was the characters and the story we cared about. Did DA2 really benefit from changing them into the things from Avatar?

I disagree there... they were pretty bland in DA:O and I love the new design of them. I love the new art design in general. That is not a bad part of DA2 what-so-ever to me, it's actually one of the things they improved on.

Did they actually need to change them is more my point. Sure they may make DA2 more unique to other fantasy games but at the same time if they had stayed largely the same as the humans and dwarves did I doubt you would have cared if it meant more than one cave in the game.

In the sense of prioritizing game changes with a limited schedule I agree with you. I am just saying on a broader level I agree with the art change.

I'm just gonna leave this here.

The link on the video pointing to dragonage/bioware/com/me2offer is still not up, assuming this is for real.

I assume this is a joke right? BioWare rewards it's most loyal fans by giving them a game they already have? I assume it will also be a non-transferable code so we won't be able to gift it either.

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this one, still unsure if it's for real but it looks like it could be. The link supposedly goes live sometime today.

If it's for real it reeks of desperation to boost DA2 sales,"Buy our crappy game and get one of our good games for free". It also reeks of stupid, much like everything Bioware pr/marketing related, because loyal fans will have the games already, so this is a reward for those who were mildly interested but decided to skip DA2 when they realized it's crap.

But untill that link goes up, or not, or untill there's an official announcment there's no way to know if this is legit.

I can see why it would be legit. There will be an Ultimate edition of ME2 later in the year so this is likely a last move to sell all the ME2 DLC individually. ME2 sales have likely slowed to a crawl now. Its still doesn't in anyway reward loyal fans. I would be happy if they announced a massive DLC that doubled the content in DA2. More varied quests, a good ending and more than one poxy cave for starters.

Selling some ME2 DLC, assuming it's real, could be in there somewhere, but not as a primary goal, or at least i don't think so.

Thing is, anyone interested in ME2 and its DLC can likely get it alot cheaper by buying ME2 and DLC than by jumping on this offer and then buying ME2 DLC, so this looks like an incentive completely geared towards those who are still on the fence about DA2. If this is for real it's confirmation that DA2 sales were crap in regards to their expectations, or at least that's how i would read it in a first intance.

Why would you want more DA2 content ? "The food here is positevely disgusting...oh yeah, and the portions are too small."

just kidding ;)

True but if its a free game code then it's likely Bioware want us spreading the word by gifting the game to friends who will then in turn likely buy some DLC so it won't be a total loss give-away. Plus its more potential customers for ME3.

And yes if they were to make a huge DLC pack, re-wite whole portions of the game, redesign the skills, re-design the wave attacks, add more maps and get the VO actors back to record whole new sections then I would be interested. It's unlikely we will ever get more than a Wardens Keep or worse a Darkspawn Chronicles though.

By codes and gifts i assume you mean those folks who already have ME2 but not DA2, right ?

Even if it's real there's not enough details. Is this retroactive ? If it is, is it retroactive for all PC digital copies or just those bought through EA ? Just for all PC digital copies bought through EA by folks from the 'right' 48 US states ? ;)

Basically you'd be interested in a completely new and different game with DA2's story improved then, one it would probably easyer to build from scratch than to overhaul this one or 'fix' it with DLC's. I would be interested too.

But i was joking, i sure understand why folks would want at the very least the cave/mansion cloning thing adressed if nothing else, but i wouldn't get my hopes up for any content of that kind, free or otherwise.

Edit: It's real.

No I mean people you know who didn't buy ME2. This promo would only make sense if you could gift it to people who ordinarily don't play RPGs but you think may like ME2 or people who have sat on the fence about buying it up till now. But yeah with no details it's impossible to assume who it's for.
It's not unheard of for massive expansions to correct flaws in the core game. The Witcher EE comes to mind. Then again DA2 needs a complete core overhaul and that is pretty much like making DA2.5 and it's unlikely that will ever be done even as an expansion.

We're basically saying the same thing, except i was saying it like "people who don't have DA2 yet but already have ME2 will pass the ME2 gift codes along to friends"

Go grab your free ME2 code ;)