Dragon Age II

lol

Mine is all installed (including most DLCs), I just need to get back from work to get to start to play...

I'm getting a compatibility error, and just spent the last 3 hours talking to EA tech support since Bioware won't reply on their tech support forum (which, it is a brand new game and they're likely swamped as hell...)

Might just check back at the end of the week to see if anything's been discovered, or may try returning the game to see if I can swap out for a new disc if that might even help.

Poor Kai-sun.

I played a few hours today. All the people angry at BioWare saying that game was trash because it had a more "actiony" combat before playing it just look like idiots now (well to me).

The game start is more engaging then DA:O was, the new talent system a lot more deeper too (I actually had to read what skills does as opposed to just pick the next one in a line...). Also, DX11 with the high texture pack make this game a beauty.

I'm a bit surprised by the companions/characters though, not what I expected (but I don't have all of them yet).

I unfortunately don't have a DX11 suitable card, my GTX295 only supports DX10 and Dragon Age 2 runs a little wonky trying to get it to run using DX10 (High setting is technically DX10, it just doesn't let you auto select it.) They really dropped the ball on the video section, I can forgive them for having wonky DX11, but I know my system could run this game on max settings (under DX10) and it won't even let me. The only slider I get is anti aliasing...I can't even set shadows or ambient occlusion or ANYTHING.
It's a minor thing really, as it's a new game. That's what patches are for ....and the fact I have to replace my GTX anyway since its dying on me (and under warranty, booyah.)

Actually, the funny thing is, I just downloaded the High Res Textures and it actually runs best with them on and with everything maxed cept AA. How funny. The only problem with putting my detail on High is, for example, when you kill the Ogre in the beginning as a mage, the kill animation is the two shadow hands coming out of the air and ripping him in two...which only shows black swirls unless I have directx 9 enabled instead of 10/11. Which is frustrating, cause I'm worried what I'll miss if I don't dumbdown my graphics.

They don't make 295's anymore, so I'll probably get bumped up to a 480

I got it to work after making an exception in my antivirus, uninstalling and forcing the date check app to actually run, since AVG was considering it a virus.

I got it playing 5 mins before work, lol!

My card is a GTX285, so I'm using the DX10 part of the DX11 and I can set ambient occlusion in the game video option page. Did you install the latest Nvidia drivers (released Monday)? It fix performance and compatibility issues.

As for the Ogre kill animation, now that you mention it, mine didn't have hands either, but the whole animation looked different (more like hands pushing from the inside as opposed to pull from the outside).

azarhal wrote:

My card is a GTX285, so I'm using the DX10 part of the DX11 and I can set ambient occlusion in the game video option page. Did you install the latest Nvidia drivers (released Monday)? It fix performance and compatibility issues.

As for the Ogre kill animation, now that you mention it, mine didn't have hands either, but the whole animation looked different (more like hands pushing from the inside as opposed to pull from the outside).

I do have the latest drivers, but the card difference is what is slowing mine down. Looking at their forums, seems right now DA2 very much dislikes SLI and Crossfire, and a GTX295 is a dual GPU card which is effectively an SLI on a single card. Have had performance issues on a few games due to it. No big deal, they'll fix it.

As for the kill animation, trying scaling down to Directx 9 (you can keep the high res textures on,) and kill him, pretty big difference. Nothing like, world ending, I'm just wondering what I'd be missing cool factor wise if they don't patch soon.

I'll try tonight in DX9 to see if there is any difference.

A nice little find on the official forum, somebody made a Dragon Age Origins save generator, so you can import the story you want into DA2.

Linky

That save generator is going to be fracking (<----Selven profanity filter activated) awesome!

Aldemarran wrote:

Arzon wrote:

Rogue was farking amazing! The backstab animation, the flask thing... everything was just so smoothly animated and fun to watch. Plus that's the only class that I didn't wipe on the second ogre thingy with!

Trying Rogue tonight, curious to see how that goes. But being and "Indestructible Tank of Doom" worked quite well for me on the first try, just had to make sure my DR stance was on.

Alright, I have a confession to make. I started off playing my tank, but after watching some Rogue work and seeing the trees I just had to try one. I haven't been back to my tank since... Ye gads (<-----Selven profanity filter activated), the auto-attack DPS combos are not just insane, they are crazy insane! Stupid high DPS with no stamina issues and the ability to travel around the field killing off ranged attackers hiding outside the AOE... Oh, and with Cunning being both a primary DPS & defense stat I can safely solo most hostiles while the rest of the party handles the mob scene. And now that I've got Sebastian I'm even thinking of making an archer which I disliked on all the Rogue in DA:O.

/convert to Rogue

lol

I started with a rogue, then switched to a mage just to see. I almost finished my mage story. Then it's back to the rogue...then a warrior, then probably a different mage...

Force Mage is really funny to use against lots of enemies (it's a crowd controller class with cool looking spells).

I'm still doing my mage and I'm enjoying it, and I did go Force mage as well. Only have the first ability but was working more in the elemental tree first.

Going to try warrior next. I'm not a big rogue fan, least not playing them right now, and I have to micromanage Isabela if I have her in group or she gets squashed quick, otherwise she's fine.

Varric however, is a bloody beast.

Hehe, you did the same mage as me...

Also, Bianca is a bloody beast.

azarhal wrote:

Hehe, you did the same mage as me...

Also, Bianca is a bloody beast.

Yes, Bianca is awesome. I really like Varric as a party member and companion, and Aveline. Some of the others though, don't really spark my interest. Fenris kinds of bugs me, and Anders is a little annoying...but that's mostly the fact he became more serious after the bit with Justice/Vengeance, so it's understandable from his character growth.

Haven't played with Merril much, and Isabela + Aveline can have some funny party banter.

Merrill is a riot with Varric in the party or anybody for that matter. She's just so...clueless. Varric and Anders is also funny. Aveline is mostly serious with everyone (and the others make fun of her for it). Isabella + anybody is always dirty. And sarcastic Hawke is just awesome.

Varric and Aveline are my favorite companions so far, in term of personality, the others are all different kind of emo at the start.

I usually "rotated" the 3rd spot and used mostly Varric and Aveline, but I will probably change that in my 2nd playthrough and try a different party setup. Although, Aveline have a lot of quests inputs too.

I'm seriously thinking about an all-Rogue party. Base it on maximum stuns (spec everyone to have an endless number of stuns) and watch the enemies fall. Only I think bosses (at least some of them) are immune to stuns, so that could get inconvenient.

I'm now working on my second play thro.

First one was a mage were i imported my Origin save, but this play thro was kind of rushed I even missed Isabella Have to make a new mage later and do it again properly Made a mage with elemental spirit healer and some force and spirit for the passive bonus stuff, was fun. But I only got to lvl 21 since I rushed so much.

Next mage I will make a earth?/spirit spec I think, maybe some force as well.

Now I’m working on a 2h warrior and its dam fun currently at the absolutely last part of act 2 and I have done everything so far this run, hmm might not have cleared out al the night gangs though, damn.

But about the companions I honestly dislike them I would rather play with out or just 1 like first Never Winter Night. I find it hard to get a good top view to manage tacs and I honestly can’t be arsed to micromanage them. If micromanaging al chars is something that I shall enjoy then I prefer games like Baldur's Gate 1 and 2. I feel that those games are built for it while Dragonage 2 and Mass effect are more like first person shooters with companions tagged on to be able to label it as an RPG. Sure we can up the difficulty level and be forced to use more tactics/micromanaging that way, but that feels like putting a adhesive plaster on the big toe to treat a heart attack.

I remember first time I arrived in Bergost in Baldur’s Gate. I went in to every house talked to every npc and so on. I modern games its more like enter an new area check map for ? and ! run to them go to new area and repeat. It feels like the amount of doors you could not open in Baldur’s Gate is the amount of doors you can open in Dragonage 2. Feels like the games are streamlined to encourage a “dumber” and “faster” gameplay and al the exploring is gone or marginalised for both good and bad.

I must say though that I really like the game sure its more boxed in then the older versions and the areas/caves/houses and so on are reused a little to much but its still a good game. I do not find it to be a successor to Baldur’s Gate anymore but I guess the games will develop in this format from now on to work good on the consoles. Story is win for this one like always when Bioware make something. I really enjoy playing there "books".

You can turn off the quest markers in the options and you can exist the party screen without filling all the slots (except for a few companions quest).

I agree there isn't enough door you can open, but at the same time one of your companion might take it personally if you start stealing from everybody. Also, BG 1&2 interiors were all copy pasted and BioWare stopped doing those with BG2 xpack, they haven't done that since 2000...

Yes that is al true. I suffer a lot from nostalgia and al that, we remember the good parts and forget the bad and annoying things. Games overall have defiantly improved. Dragonage 2 is a very good game, combat is fun in its current from fast phased and feels smooth. The quests are over all well made if you ask me but the repeated areas is annoying me when there are so few types(was probably just as annoying when playing BG just that I have forgotten about it). I generally dislike when the chapters don’t open up a new area but just override the old one so you can’t go back, but it has been like this for a very long time now and will probably not go away. And this is needed in most cases in order to tell the story, and story is why I play Bioware games in the first place.

The companions are rather good but I believe that my dislike for them is the fact that there AI is actually half descent, but that together with a fast phased combat is hard on me. This since the dam chars run of on there own doing things a little to fast, attacking mobs that I don’t want them to hit yet and so on. Have to spend a lot of time correcting the AI compared to the old BG games were the AI sucked donkey but it was a slower games and easier to catch straying chars. The hold function is odd as well. Melee chars can’t really be put on hold to guard a door for example, this was a lot easier done with the old BG crap AI. There should be a function “stay with in this area” and a way to define what area I mean. The amount of times that one dam char have run around a corner and got attacked by more mobs is too many and when the party tries to stay linked it means some other char will come running to it when I try to move it back, maybe its just me that suck but what do I know. And when hold function is activated I don’t seam to be able to set up my chars at a chokepoint and then use another to go pull the mobs. Most of the time the chars at the chokepoint will have moved to close the gap the the char I guiding. Maybe its just me trying to play a new game with old tactics

I find it easier to play as a melee char with ranged companions then play a ranged char with melee companions.

Gosh it sounds like I’m only complaining when I actually like the game

Yea, I'll have to say that while I like Dragon Age 2 a lot, I do miss it not being more like Origins. I don't believe it's broken or a horrible game, but I think I would have preferred that style of game stay with Mass Effect or a new IP.

Love Hawke, but Origins was really amazing, and this game feels a bit lesser due to a number of reasons. One I can't fault it on is the closed in bits, seeing as it's all supposed to be happening in Kirkwall. Risky design choice, but I think they did alright even if some areas are reused.

One thing I think they've done their best on (again,) is indeed the story, there's a lot more choices that are serious "What AM I going to do?" in here. I really loved it.

Still haven't completed my first playthrough but still enjoying it. Like you azarhal, I've had Varric and Aveline in my party for the entire thing and I usually rotate out the third spot between Isabela and Sebastian (Carver before he left.) I love how Sebastian's armor looks, and it's so awesome to hear him voiced by Alec Newman (Paul Atreides from the Dune Mini Series.) Might give Merril a shot in my next playthough so I'll still have a mage in my party. I romanced Isabela this playthrough cause well....didn't know who I wanted to do that with...and I generally pick someone on any of my games. Not really into any of the romances this time around, so I might just forget about it next time.

The mage play thro I used Avaline, Anders and Merril/Varric most of the time I never had a rogue but I can’t see that I missed out on to much or anything important yet. With the warrior play thro I use Varric, Anders and Isabella. I haven’t really looked in to what the chars can do but I think there should be a companion spirithealer. Don’t think Anders or Merril can spec like that …. Have to look it up when I come home from work.

Mli wrote:

The mage play thro I used Avaline, Anders and Merril/Varric most of the time I never had a rogue but I can’t see that I missed out on to much or anything important yet. With the warrior play thro I use Varric, Anders and Isabella. I haven’t really looked in to what the chars can do but I think there should be a companion spirithealer. Don’t think Anders or Merril can spec like that …. Have to look it up when I come home from work.

Player mage is the only available spirit healer, but Anders is pretty much the closest you can get due to his special talents. I didn't like micromanaging his healing though, so I've actually been playing the game without a healer.

Who need a healer? Crafted potions are amazing replacement and if you set up the tactics, you don't have to tell the party members to use them.

And the best "romance" is Aveline, for the simple fact that she isn't romancable, but that you can still try like an idiot. The player can feel like those rejected companions now. Yes, I have an heartbroken Jim Hawke. Although, the only romance I ever followed in any BioWare games is Liara in Mass Effect and that was after playing LotSB. I always found them "not to my taste".

Also Kai-sun, what I miss is a forested area, random encounters and larger "dungeons", but the long corridors of DA:O were bad enough as they were, I don't want a return to that either (this is the reason why I think DA2 dungeons are so "small" too).

I also think that DA2 is an improvement over DA:O (or at least try to be) and I don't see the MassEffectication that some people see (and I played ME1&2 none stop since December), the only similarity is the voiced protagonist and they would have put it in DA:O if they had the time and budget to do it. DA2 feel like a mix of BG2 and Jade Empire...

YAR, THERE BE POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW!

Yea, good use of tactics and potion control renders a healer pointless. I'm sure, just like in the first game, that you can do the same and go without a tank possibly as well.

I think the only romance I've actually liked overall other then just doing them for the sake of it, was Morrigan from DA:O. That in part, might be because of how central she is to the story if you choose it. And I'm a sucker for Claudia Black, ever since Farscape was on air. Though, I guess I didn't mind Bastila either...but again I'm thinking this is partly due to story involvement.

I'd agree that I do miss some of the more open areas from DA:O, and I really don't find that much fault with Dragon Age 2. Don't get me wrong, I think DA2 works well and fine and that it's a good game, but I think I maybe would have preferred some things being a bit more similar to the original instead of making so many changes to the sequel. I like both games for their strong points and both game styles that they put forward.

As for Aveline, yeah it's pretty funny trying to romance her only to have it go over her head basically, then have her act SUCH an idiot around Donnic, light that was amazingly funny.

Just beat the game siding with the Mages, and I think I'll end up having to replay a mage playthrough when they decide to do a Dragon Age 3 (missed some stuff). Something just felt...right being a mage during the story, I liked it a lot, glad I decided to go with that first. Going to do a warrior playthrough, though not sure if I can side with the Templars this time around, may just go mage instead

I think canon Hawke is a mage, well he was in the trailer.

Claudia Black is amazing as a VO, she have like 3 different voices and can do 3 different accents with each, but I never warmed to Morrigan's character.

I guess I don't miss DA:O that much, because I haven't played it in, what, 2 years? I did retry a few months ago, but I couldn't get past Ostagar...I might have to retry it after my 2nd DA2 playthrough. The two games look quite similar to me in term of gameplay, just with a different context and smaller "dungeons/quests" (i.e. we were following Varric's story. I 'm sure Hawke had a lot of adventures in each time gap...hello DLCs).

As for felt right, I agree...it felt more "personal" as a Magi.