Dragon Age 2

Now, I'm not fully aware of what is exactly going on, but apparently a demo was released a while ago and Bioware blackmailed challenged the community to download the demo 1,000,000 times or else they won't release some items for the game. Only yesterday they had some 800,00 downloads and now it's at 1,100,000 something. Suspicious?

Well, anyway, there's way too much day 1 DLC for my tastes. And of course pre-order bonus bullshit to make sure that all game stores not named Gamestop, Target or Wal-Mart will go under. I don't know if it's just me, but I'm not buying any game unless I get my money's worth by receiving the complete product. Despite all the consolization and simplification (black/smartass/white dialogue) it seems to be an alright game but why all the stupid DLC shit? Do they not believe in the quality of the game alone?

Then there's The Witcher 2. The childish slapping wars between the fans of the two games will be unbearable when both are released.

The only good thing Bioware ever made was Mass Effect 1 and 2. Once ME3 releases, I'll never have to buy any of their products ever again.

You didn't like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights?

Gez said:

You didn't like Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights?

Never tried Neverwinter Nights 1, but I did try the second one and thought it was pretty terrible compared to Dragon Age. It was ugly, the user interface was extremely unintuitive, your companions were all completely brain dead, and the combat just looked awful. Oh and god damn Neeshka alone was enough to make me hate the game.

That said, I'm not sure I'll get the second one, mainly because the first one nearly sucked the life out of me. Just two day after buying it on Steam I had logged about 20 hours.

bioware didn't make neverwinter nights 2, they farmed out the IP to (who else) obsidian. and yes, the original nwn2 campaign was a sorry, tedious, bug-ridden mess. josh sawyer (known most recently as the fallout: new vegas design lead) took control of the project late in its development and was apparently lucky to get it out the door on time at all. nwn1 had a pretty banal OC too but the strength of that game was in its toolset and multiplayer anyway.

on the other hand the first expansion to nwn2, mask of the betrayer, is a triumph and one of the best rpgs of the 00s. beats the pants off DAO too (which i did also enjoy). the engine/ui is fine after patches and a little configging.

also mr. freeze you are currently expressing a Wrong Opinion. BG1/2, KOTOR, NWN, ME1 and DAO are all varying degrees of good game. not counting jade empire and the sonic rpg neither of which i've actually played, ME2 is the first bad-to-mediocre bioware game.

editor's note: DA2 looks like a horse shit game and the excessive early-cutoff preorder bonuses make it seem like the devs aren't terribly confident about it either, despite mike laidlaw's constant on-camera autofellatio. fans of DAO should note that its lead designer left bioware in 2009 directly citing the DA2 design direction as a main reason

Tried the demo, and I absolutely hate the controls/gameplay.

Craigs said:

Never tried Neverwinter Nights 1, but I did try the second one and thought it was pretty terrible compared to Dragon Age. It was ugly, the user interface was extremely unintuitive, your companions were all completely brain dead, and the combat just looked awful. Oh and god damn Neeshka alone was enough to make me hate the game.

That said, I'm not sure I'll get the second one, mainly because the first one nearly sucked the life out of me. Just two day after buying it on Steam I had logged about 20 hours.

Neverwinter Nights 2 was made by Obsidian.

ughhh. Someone convinced me to buy dragon age and I haven't felt so ripped off since I bought supreme commander. It's the only game I've ever bough that I physically threw the dvds away.

It's a jrpg thinly disguised as a western rpg and I can't imagine anything more insipid.

What really gets me is how Bioware said "JRPGs suck due to their inability to embrace exploration over linear settings". And then they made ME2 into Gears of War (scrapped inventory, very few sidequests, stats mean jack shit), and it looks like DA2 is going through the same thing.

That, and their current philosophy of "It doesn't work? REMOVE IT!" (ME's inventory and Mako segments come to mind) reeks of incompetent design work.

Quast said:

It's a jrpg thinly disguised as a western rpg and I can't imagine anything more insipid.

DAO definitely has more than a few glaring flaws that can be dealbreakers depending on taste, but this comment i can't wrap my head around. the game is an unapologetic western rpg in every aspect from the character building and leveling system to the art and world design. the only thing i can think of that remotely smacks of jrpg is some ridiculously high fantasy logic that comes into play at the endgame.

DA2 seems to borrow from glorious nippon slightly more heavily, with the cloud strife swords and stupid-ass NPC costumes, although its still definitely not the most grievous thing that's been revealed about the game so far.

I can't stand RTS games or games with RTS-like combat, thus the overwhelming majority of Bioware's games do not appeal to me.

I liked DAO, not enough to get the expansion, but liked it nonetheless.

DAO2, however, interests me not one whit.

I liked DAO, though I still haven't finished it (due to my inability to stick to the one character). DA2 I might check out, but it does sound like they are making some pretty bad decisions with it, so I dunno.

As for BG/NWN, I tried BG1 and hated it (probably because I played a mage), never tried 2 although I hear it's better (and easier to get into). NWN I never liked much either. I think I'm just not a fan of the whole D'n'D ruleset stuff. The BG mage was particularly bad: oh hey it's a fight! cast magic missile, run away from shit like a useless idiot the rest of the fight.

People forget that they made Knights of the Old Republic? I am dissapoint.

SlayeR said:

The BG mage was particularly bad: oh hey it's a fight! cast magic missile, run away from shit like a useless idiot the rest of the fight.

Hahaha, yeah, mages are pretty slow starting but they really pick up later on.

Whoo said:

Tried the demo, and I absolutely hate the controls/gameplay.

I watched a video (Angry Joe) playing it and I thought it was more appealing to hack through enemies as opposed to the first game. I'm not the kind to micromanage an RPG with RTS-like fighting and worry about party members getting KOed/killed.

Liam said:

also mr. freeze you are currently expressing a Wrong Opinion. BG1/2, KOTOR, NWN, ME1 and DAO are all varying degrees of good game. not counting jade empire and the sonic rpg neither of which i've actually played, ME2 is the first bad-to-mediocre bioware game.

I can't remember if the Icewind Dale series was Bioware or just Black Isle, but it was pretty boring.

Quast said:

It's a jrpg thinly disguised as a western rpg and I can't imagine anything more insipid.

What. It might not have the open-endedness of Fallout or Baldur's Gate, but it's nowhere near linear, and you have plenty of choices for your character to go down.

WildWeasel said:

I can't stand RTS games or games with RTS-like combat, thus the overwhelming majority of Bioware's games do not appeal to me.

What. This just doesn't even make any sense at all. You mean because they aren't first person?

SlayeR said:

As for BG/NWN, I tried BG1 and hated it (probably because I played a mage), never tried 2 although I hear it's better (and easier to get into). NWN I never liked much either. I think I'm just not a fan of the whole D'n'D ruleset stuff. The BG mage was particularly bad: oh hey it's a fight! cast magic missile, run away from shit like a useless idiot the rest of the fight.

Yeah, well Baldur's Gate was based on 2nd edition D%D, which was a really wonky system that hated mages. You kind of have to get used to the system to start enjoying it. Also, grab the Ring of Wizardry that's hidden in a hole outside of the Friendly Arm Inn near the start of the game. Helps a lot for wizards.

Mr. Freeze said:

The only good thing Bioware ever made was Mass Effect 1 and 2. Once ME3 releases, I'll never have to buy any of their products ever again.

MDK called, they're coming for you tonight

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Fisk said:

MDK called, they're coming for you tonight

You mean MDK2. MDK was Shiny.

Gez said:

I liked DAO, not enough to get the expansion, but liked it nonetheless.

DAO2, however, interests me not one whit.

I'd get the expansions if they'd show a bit of common sense and make it so you could purchase them off Steam instead of through their god awful wannabe facebook site.

DAO was alright. It had its good and bad moments. As for DA2, the demo was ok. It seemed way to consolized compared to the first one. I might get it when it goes on sale, some time after its release.

I had a lot more fun playing through The Witcher. After reading the books and running through the game a second time, I'm really thinking about pre-ordering The Witcher 2.

I tried the demo, and quit halfway through because it was so boring. Both the combat and story are dull and unoriginal.

Danarchy said:

What. This just doesn't even make any sense at all. You mean because they aren't first person?

Well, I already had a similar discussion on IRC, so I'll just repaste the relevant bits here.

[00:49:50] <@wildweasel> my problem is more that I hate real-time-with-pause-but-it's-actually-still-turn-based combat
[00:50:16] <@wildweasel> the pause is a solution to the wrong problem
[00:50:25] <@wildweasel> I would like it if it were PROPER turn based
[00:50:49] <@wildweasel> I hate seeing my characters die because his last blow is governed by a three-second delay before he's able to take another action
[00:51:14] <@wildweasel> either make it true real-time or don't bother
[00:52:11] <@wildweasel> the battles in KOTOR basically boil down to watching two people stand in place, either shooting or hacking at each other with one of three possible animations until the stats dictate that one of them should die
[00:52:39] <@wildweasel> I am not really much of an RPG fan so this bothers the shit out of me

I was replaying DAO and I'm just going to say that I hate missables, after all the shit I had to do I got to the Landsmeet and

Well by looking at the reviews from the very first week of release I'd say a lot of people aren't happy with their purchase:



heh.

There's more to it... I think this picture speaks for itself.

http://images.4chan.org/hr/src/1300227863454.gif

You want explanation? Prepare your fucking anus:

http://www.killerbetties.com/killer_women_jennifer_hepler?page=0%2C3

The article said:

>Q: What is your least favorite thing about working in the industry?

>A: Playing the games. This is probably a terrible thing to admit, but it has definitely been the single most difficult thing for me. I came into the job out of a love of writing, not a love of playing games... I'm really terrible at so many things which most games use incessantly -- I have awful hand-eye coordination, I don't like tactics, I don't like fighting, I don't like keeping track of inventory, and I can't read a game map to save my life.

Now keep in mind that this person is gainfully employed in the video game industry, making video games.

A person who hates video games.

And doesn't want to play them.

And wants to skip them with a fast forward button.

Mr. Freeze said:

Now keep in mind that this person is gainfully employed in the video game industry, making video games.

A person who hates video games.

Reminds me of EA Games. The gaming industry has become a business, the age of masterpieces is over, now it's just getting a packaged product and hyping it up and then letting the consumers do the rest by trying to justify their purchases by forcing themselves to enjoy the game. :)

She does kinda have a point here:

A lot of ground has been broken in other media when someone who is dissatisfied with his existing choices decides to try something new (Samuel Beckett comes to mind, as the self-professed playwright who hated drama).

If she doesn't like the games that exist, there's nothing wrong with her trying to make games she'd like.

However, she should keep in mind that while trying to capture a broader potential userbase is all fine and dandy, she shouldn't alienate the actual existing userbase...