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Dragon Age II

WabeWalker said:
Dead easy. And yes, ridiculously simple. Not tactical at all. One guy said to me once, okay, so don't play like that then - but that's how I did play. I was playing the game. I just can't fathom how a person who has played both games can suggest that DA 2 is the 'dumbed down' game, while Origins was the clever title - that, to me, is just so wrong.
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I'm not trying to be contrarian or call DA2 dumbed down, especially since I haven't played it yet--I'm still on the fence about a buy/wait/pass decision (your posts have been very helpful, btw), but from the sounds of it, the same argument could apply to tanks in DA2 if that's the way people want to play. The no pause/nightmare vids demonstrated that quite effectively.

Then again, 2H dps with certain trees are insanely powerful in DA:O. Three mages sounds like fun, I might try that on the next playthrough. If I can get through this god damned Steam backlog (New Year's resolution) maybe I can play some 2010+ games. Heh. :D
 
I love that your New Years resolution is to play through more games! lol..thats hardcore right there.
 
WabeWalker said:
Dumbing down of features? We must be talking about two different games here (uh... bro). Because Origins was stupid. Utterly brain dead.

Here, my Origins guide, just for you. You can cruise through the game on the Nightmare setting if you do this.

1) You get your healers to spam their heal spells by creating custom tactics in the custom tactics menu.
2) Craft 800 health poultices.
3) Setup another custom tactic for each of your party members to heal at 50% using health poultices.

You're done. That's it. You'll cruise all the way to the end of the game and you won't even have to touch a button. And I mean that literally. Once you've set this up, you don't even have to play the game. Your character will even auto-attack.
Click to expand...

You didn't HAVE to play the game like this. I sure didn't.
 
Derangel said:
Resist what? EA owns 100% of Bioware and their IPs. They have no say at all and whether they like it or not if EA says the game must be out by this date they have to do it or risk losing their jobs.
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Well, that sucks.

Most of the time I hear about rushed games being bad, I don't really care since I didn't plan on playing them anyways. But now that it's finally affecting a game I anticipated, it's a kick in the balls.

And regarding strategy in DA2, it was more 'tactical' than the first, but in a silly forced way. Some fights in DA1 could be tough EVEN with shorter healing cooldowns. In DA2, the challenge comes from mobs appearing out of nowhere in the middle of every fight. Sometimes they would all pop out where my healer was standing, and complicate the fight that way.
 
2H Warrior Power!

http://i.imgur.com/p0w65.jpg

Added it all up: 7302 damage from one swing.


Finished the game just now, 35 hours, lvl 21. Whew! What an "ending." For some reason the end battle reminded me of Ghostbusters. Was a Male 2H warrior/reaver/warmonger, ran with Isabella, Anders, and Merrill most of the game, and subbed Aveline for Isabella for anticipated hard battles. Got my groove on with Isabella and Merrill, but I fell in love with Merrill. Sided with the mages.

Overall, a B+ game. I think what bothered me most was that there were several characters that were crazy, a couple with good reason, and a couple for no apparent reason (Spoiler: thefirstenchanterwtf?). The recycled environments were also annoying, but not game breaking for me. And the lack of companion armor... who's idea was that?

I think for the most part, my mild disappointment stems from what I term "Matrix 2 Syndrome." No real resolution, more of a setup for #3. Compared to the first, it's not nearly as good. Compared to most other games, still very good. Here's hoping that DA3 will be at least as good as Matrix 3 (i.e. better than 2), and hopefully as good as Matrix 1.

I'm going to give it a break for a couple weeks I think, download some mods, and go through again with a Female Blood Mage and side with the Templars, if possible, due to the irony that would present. Plan on getting my scissor action on with Isabella.

Glad I bought it, glad I played it. Worth the $$. Will play again.
 
daveyjwin said:
2H Warrior Power!

http://i.imgur.com/p0w65.jpg

Added it all up: 7302 damage from one swing.


Finished the game just now, 35 hours, lvl 21. Whew! What an "ending." For some reason the end battle reminded me of Ghostbusters. Was a Male 2H warrior/reaver/warmonger, ran with Isabella, Anders, and Merrill most of the game, and subbed Aveline for Isabella for anticipated hard battles. Got my groove on with Isabella and Merrill, but I fell in love with Merrill. Sided with the mages.

Overall, a B+ game. I think what bothered me most was that there were several characters that were crazy, a couple with good reason, and a couple for no apparent reason (Spoiler: thefirstenchanterwtf?). The recycled environments were also annoying, but not game breaking for me. And the lack of companion armor... who's idea was that?

I think for the most part, my mild disappointment stems from what I term "Matrix 2 Syndrome." No real resolution, more of a setup for #3. Compared to the first, it's not nearly as good. Compared to most other games, still very good. Here's hoping that DA3 will be at least as good as Matrix 3 (i.e. better than 2), and hopefully as good as Matrix 1.

I'm going to give it a break for a couple weeks I think, download some mods, and go through again with a Female Blood Mage and side with the Templars, if possible, due to the irony that would present. Plan on getting my scissor action on with Isabella.

Glad I bought it, glad I played it. Worth the $$. Will play again.
Click to expand...

Pro tip: claymore from vanguard doubles the dmg of your click dmg skills, so you could potentially be dealing 14k dmg.
 
fornarmr said:
You didn't HAVE to play the game like this. I sure didn't.
Click to expand...

In other words, to compensate for the game being stupid, you want me to gimp my so-called 'tactics'.

I've got a better idea, to compensate for the game being stupid then maybe Bioware ought to make the game more tactical by not allowing players to spam healing spells and health poultices.

Oh wait, they did do that, in Dragon Age 2. :D
 
I never spammed healing in Origins, nor did I have to. A bad experience doesn't mean the game is junk.
 
WabeWalker said:
Dumbing down of features? We must be talking about two different games here (uh... bro). Because Origins was stupid. Utterly brain dead.

Here, my Origins guide, just for you. You can cruise through the game on the Nightmare setting if you do this.

1) You get your healers to spam their heal spells by creating custom tactics in the custom tactics menu.
2) Craft 800 health poultices.
3) Setup another custom tactic for each of your party members to heal at 50% using health poultices.

You're done. That's it. You'll cruise all the way to the end of the game and you won't even have to touch a button. And I mean that literally. Once you've set this up, you don't even have to play the game. Your character will even auto-attack.

Now, if you were to play Dragon Age 2 you'd discover very early on that the cool down meters on the health poultices and health spells have been drastically lengthened meaning you now have to use your abilities at the higher levels of difficulty, meaning the above tactic no longer works. It's still not as tactical as it should be, but to suggest that Dragon Age Origins is a deeper game, tactically, than DA 2 is just downright ridiculous.
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Congrats, you felt like NOT having fun in Origins. I didn't play this way and had tons of fun. Go cry somewhere else dude.

Can we give Wabe an achievement for sustaining a thread by himself?

WabeWalker said:
In other words, to compensate for the game being stupid, you want me to gimp my so-called 'tactics'.

I've got a better idea, to compensate for the game being stupid then maybe Bioware ought to make the game more tactical by not allowing players to spam healing spells and health poultices.

Oh wait, they did do that, in Dragon Age 2. :D
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I'd call your detailed tactics PRETTY DAMN GIMPED to begin with...look, if the game FORCED you to do that to survive, it'd be bad. You are not however forced to do that...you have the ability to. Strikes me as the game being versatile, not bad.
 
mongoosenco said:
Overall I still like the game. My biggest gripe is the reuse of areas over and over again. They could have varied the maps and textures more that's for sure. There is really no excuse to reuse the maps and textures to that extent.
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Just finished DA2 yesterday and this is definitely my main gripe. I had fun with the combat and the story, however I don't think I've seen levels re-used so many times since the Atari days. It's not even like the levels are terribly detailed or complicated :rolleyes: They barely even changed the city when years pass, they just moved things in front of different areas to block them off. The whole effort feels really weak for level design. 8 hours into the game and you have already seen 90% of the levels, then you just keep going through them over and over and over and over... :(

This sums it up pretty well:

50755.jpg
 
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ocellaris said:
Just finished DA2 yesterday and this is definitely my main gripe. I had fun with the combat and the story, however I don't think I've seen levels re-used so many times since the Atari days. It's not even like the levels are terribly detailed or complicated :rolleyes: They barely even changed the city when years pass, they just moved things in front of different areas to block them off. The whole effort feels really weak for level design. 8 hours into the game and you have already seen 90% of the levels, then you just keep going through them over and over and over and over... :(

This sums it up pretty well:

50755.jpg
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I was afraid of this. I've seen it in other games but I didn't think DA2 would resort to something like that.

Where can I find those comics? I went to the escapist website but there's way too much content to track down where one comic comes from.
 
rampantandroid said:
Can we give Wabe an achievement for sustaining a thread by himself?
Click to expand...

We can't because he's already the all-time award winner for sustaining every single game thread on here that has any hint of criticism toward any game with a rigorous defense. He's currently working hard in the Crysis 2 thread. :)

I'm going through DAO for the first time myself and while I can see how I could win by spamming HP's, I'm not going to play that way.

RPGs like this are all about role play and imposing limitations on yourself and the character and believability of the storytelling to really enjoy the game.

If you are someone who plays the game just to beat it or wants to be a completionist (be a character that is as many classes and abilities at once, is all powerful, has the best stuff, never misses a single locked chest, accomplishes every quest with the maximum rewards, gets all party members to 100 approval and beds every female and male in the land) then sure, go ahead and just spam your health poultices like you brought 100 glass bottles into a battle and you can drink them at will.
 
Spare-Flair said:
I was afraid of this. I've seen it in other games but I didn't think DA2 would resort to something like that.

Where can I find those comics? I went to the escapist website but there's way too much content to track down where one comic comes from.
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I don't think I've ever seen levels so blatantly reused in a modern game, so this is probably the benchmark for bad level design right now. Its almost like the game is rubbing your face in it too, sometimes you will get excited to go check out XYZ since it sounds like something new... Then you get there and SURPRISE!!! It's the same damn level layout you just did a couple hours ago, but now some of the walls have traps on them. And the first time the level was called and abandoned ruin, but this time its a hideout. Mob and boss encounters always happen in the same locations as well, so you will be surprised by a boss once, then after that its like "Oh no, I am getting close to the room of death again, better save..." I played 48 hours of DA2 only to find out that the "something new" never happens.

No idea where the comic is from, friend sent me a link when he was complaining about the same thing :D

Did everyone that beat DA2 find the resources needed to make the +7 to all stats armor runes? Talk about overpowered, game was total EZ mode after I made those runes for everyone in the party :eek:
 
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Repetition of maps is just scandalous, I can`t seriously remember any other game that has this much of it. Even worse is that it just isn`t returning to same area (which is somewhat logical, if weak, way to design additional content) but reusing same maps in dozens of quests in different locations on top of that? :mad::confused:

Combat looks good first but becomes chore after you discover broken combos (vanguard/berserk/reaver combo being one). You basically need quick way to massacre all those ridiculous adds and this way it literally becomes "press button, something awesome happens" routine of bashing attack button even on PC which has autoattack, due to enemies getting thrown out of attack range by basic attack which requires you to hit attack button again to powerslide after them.

Addional enemies also literally spawn before your eyes, spiders dropping from sky and armored warriors appearing from nowhere. Assassin type enemies have way too much health and unstealthing them doesn`t seem to work. Mages have 100% damage resistance barriers and teleport (which goes against lore of the game world). It`s just a huge mess. Oh, and enemies explode to pieces with hilarious frequency.

Only interesting part is setting companion tactics, but since there are only three conditions that can trigger cross-class combo there is not much variety. You can try mucking with rogues (assassinate being stupid broken ability and must have) or mage (abuse force abilities) but warrior was least :effort: to get through this frigging game as fast as possible. After you have finished your tactics you don`t really need to change them at all for most part and game runs almost on automatic.

I think 6/10 is pretty good for this game. Companion chats and such were good but rest just ranges from downright offensive to bland.

I`ll just post example video of warrior gameplay done in "right" way... It`s mindless fun but me, no way worth doing that for 40 hours in row. Both shield and sword or two-handed will work pretty much same way. Not my video but build can be found in Bioware forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqcCMIRTUU&feature=watch_response
 
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I just finished Act 1 over the weekend, and realized I missed an optional battle in the Deep Roads with no saves prior to going in, so I just restarted the whole thing (after 23 hours). I probably didn't need to, but I really am OCD about completing everything on my first playthrough. Doesn't really bother me as I really enjoy the game and there are a few items I missed anyways, so no biggie.

But wow, <spoilers> the Ancient Rock Wraith, are you kidding me? After trying it 3 or 4 times on hard, I just dropped it down to normal and beat it, and it still took 10+ minutes. My main is a dual wield rogue, so I was at a disadvantage having two melee characters (Aveline as a tank). I could probably have beaten it on hard had I been specced for archery. I had been playing with Aveline the entire game so I didn't want to just drop her for the Deep Roads too. On this playthrough I am keeping my dual wield rogue but I'll bring a bow just for that fight and should be able to beat it on hard. What was really killing me was the stupid adds he spawns.
 
Zorlag said:
Only interesting part is setting companion tactics, but since there are only three conditions that can trigger cross-class combo there is not much variety. You can try mucking with rogues (assassinate being stupid broken ability and must have) or mage (abuse force abilities) but warrior was least :effort: to get through this frigging game as fast as possible. After you have finished your tactics you don`t really need to change them at all for most part and game runs almost on automatic.

I think 6/10 is pretty good for this game. Companion chats and such were good but rest just ranges from downright offensive to bland.

I`ll just post example video of warrior gameplay done in "right" way... It`s mindless fun but me, no way worth doing that for 40 hours in row. Both shield and sword or two-handed will work pretty much same way. Not my video but build can be found in Bioware forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjqcCMIRTUU&feature=watch_response
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Well just based on myself and some friends, none of us discovered the ridiculous combos. We all built characters that felt somewhat logical with a tank/healer +2 DPS layout. I barely even did any of the cross class combos until later in the game when I had a lot of talent points. I played a Rogue and never had Assassinate for example :eek::(

I am tempted to start up another play though with the mega DPS warrior build though... Looks like a fun way to try other things in the story.
 
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fornarmr said:
I just finished Act 1 over the weekend, and realized I missed an optional battle in the Deep Roads with no saves prior to going in, so I just restarted the whole thing (after 23 hours). I probably didn't need to, but I really am OCD about completing everything on my first playthrough. Doesn't really bother me as I really enjoy the game and there are a few items I missed anyways, so no biggie.
[/COLOR]
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Just a heads up for your OCD, there is a quest later in the game that will often (always?) bug out for people and you can never complete it. The quest is called "Who Needs Rescuing?" and you probably want to investigate how to finish that quest as soon as you hit Act 3.
 
Rogue without Assassinate? Damn that`s one gimped rogue right there. I suppose you could substitute a bit with Vendetta but it really just is not as good. Or have them both...

That warrior build is basically based on stacking speed enhancements (lyrium rune, haste, frenzy) and damage enhancements. At start of a fight you fire up Cleave, Barrage and Sacrificial Frenzy and go to town. Companion tactics will autocast haste as soon as you start hitting people and once you get that +30% to attack speed for 10 seconds per kill passive skill (Fervor) it gets really insane. More adds there are in the fight stronger it is since you will one-hit them for constant speed boosts. Vanguard tree also has passive skill that autokills trash at 20% and lieunants at 10% on to of that. Also use elemental weapons passive skill and use correct damage type for the enemy (cold and spirit are pretty good for most of the game).
 
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Just as in DA:O, difficulty is uneven. The Rock Wraith was the first time I died for real, but when you know his cycle he's easy (just take cover behind the pillars). Really, it's only at the end of Act II where I've had two really hard fights, as in, ten times as hard as any of the earlier fights, including dragons. (also, autosaved with your party 10cm from the enemies... sigh)

Of course, in one of them the leader never-ending-autospawned large groups of followers. It's like fighting someone with startrek transporter tech. Beam more down Scotty!

Still, nothing like the toughest fights in BG2.
 
When allocating skill points for each class, what's a good cutoff point for willpower? In my first run through, I mostly kept an equal balance willpower, con, and whatever main stat that class requires. By the end I wasn't sure if I was gimping myself by playing it safe with my stat distribution. Also, I was playing on normal.
 
entropy13 said:
I just got this, what should I expect, having played DA:O and Awakening?
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episodic rather that large sweeping story arcs, lots of the city kirkwall, cross class combos on harder difficulties or do no damage. Be prepared for a smaller game in style and scope. Forget any chance of inspired themes at eventful times in the games story (there are none).


So none of this kind of theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVrXW0WVXYw#t=1m10s


have fun !!!!!!!
 
Am I reading this right?

Nvidia has just released a beta driver which improves Dragon Age 2 performance by roughly... uh, 300 percent? The people over at Bioware's forum are reporting that DA2 can now be played on the highest setting.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dra...f-Help/Nvidia-new-Beta-Drivers-6849834-1.html

I can't confirm how well the driver works for myself right now, but if anybody else can I'd love to hear about it. With my present driver, I can't play on the very highest DX11 setting - it's just a stutter fest. If I drop it one below that then I can enable SSAO but I have to turn off AA and anisitropy (in order for the battles to feel smooth). I've been going back and forth for a while now. The SSAO really makes the colors pop, but then I miss the AA. It would be great to enable 8x AA, 16x anisitropy, and also run with SSAO enabled. Hope this driver does the trick.

I stopped playing last week when I reached the end of chapter one, where there was a natural break - looks like I'll be starting chapter two tonight now.

Here's the link to the driver download page:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-270.51-beta-driver.html

EDIT: Apparently, if you're running a GTX 580 sli setup then Nvidia says you'll get a 500 percent increase. Huh? Only 500 percent? I mean come on, Nvidia, can't you do any better than this?
 
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WabeWalker said:
Am I reading this right?

Nvidia has just released a beta driver which improves Dragon Age 2 performance by roughly... uh, 300 percent? The people over at Bioware's forum are reporting that DA2 can now be played on the highest setting.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Dra...f-Help/Nvidia-new-Beta-Drivers-6849834-1.html

I can't confirm how well the driver works for myself right now, but if anybody else can I'd love to hear about it. With my present driver, I can't play on the very highest DX11 setting - it's just a stutter fest. If I drop it one below that then I can enable SSAO but I have to turn off AA and anisitropy (in order for the battles to feel smooth). I've been going back and forth for a while now. The SSAO really makes the colors pop, but then I miss the AA. It would be great to enable 8x AA, 16x anisitropy, and also run with SSAO enabled. Hope this driver does the trick.

I stopped playing last week when I reached the end of chapter one, where there was a natural break - looks like I'll be starting chapter two tonight now.

Here's the link to the driver download page:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvista-64bit-270.51-beta-driver.html

EDIT: Apparently, if you're running a GTX 580 sli setup then Nvidia says you'll get a 500 percent increase. Huh? Only 500 percent? I mean come on, Nvidia, can't you do any better than this?
Click to expand...

I think when they are referring to a 300%+ increase they are referring to their driver from March 2nd which had the serious buggy issues on 'Very High' mode leaving people like myself with 25-35 fps on dual GTX 580 setups.

Since then and now, there have been some driver releases for other cards that people can modify to work for other cards. I have been doing this and getting a solid 60 fps on very high with everything cranked up except 4xAA (8xAA has a shadow bug). So if they are referring to a 300%+ increase from that March 2nd driver then it might not be too far off because the jump is already so high between that one and the modified ones I have been running.
 
Early word on the street is that the new Nvidia drivers posted above have fixed the problem for Nvidia users, and that Dragon Age 2 is now playable on the highest setting in DX11 with all toggles enabled, including high res textures, depth of field, and blur. You can max out the anisitropy as well, and it seems that most people have settled on 4X anti-aliasing.
 
WabeWalker said:
Yeah, but does the driver work?
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Did you really have to make three posts about the new driver? Its fairly obvious that one of the driver has some huge DA2 fixes in it, you really don't have to keep calling out Nvidia on it.
 
PrincessFrosty said:
As usual yahtzee tells it like it is :)
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Yahtzee is a hack. You know someone is hack when you know exactly what they are going to say/write without having to even watch/read it. His reviews/humor at this point is all paint by the numbers. He might as well train a monkey. The output would be the same.
 
Luthorcrow said:
Yahtzee is a hack. You know someone is hack when you know exactly what they are going to say/write without having to even watch/read it. His reviews/humor at this point is all paint by the numbers. He might as well train a monkey. The output would be the same.
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Maybe so, but his DA2 review is dead on - as are most of his reviews.
 
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