Dragon Age II, The Making Of

I seem to be in the minority that didn't enjoy Dragon Age. I'm an avid fan of the sword and sorcery genre and of Bioware as well, but I thought the storytelling in DA was lackluster. The pacing was rushed, but not in a way to create tension or a sense of urgency. The storyline was generic, and wasn't refreshing in any sense. Oh no! We have an enemy that's ugly looking, doesn't speak our language, and every couple hundred of years gets pissed off and decides to attack us. I'm tired of the antagonist with no motivation and are the embodiment of inherent evil. Give me factions that disagree over cultures, religion, prophecies etc and war breaks out over that. Or a group that wants to take over the lands for some complex motivation like an arch demon basically ransoms the world and selects a group of people/country/faction as the chosen ones through treachery and deceit, and threatens if they don't lay siege to the neighboring country and conquer them he/she will destroy everything. So then the story becomes about the motivations and morality choices of the characters; is it better to exist and live albeit depraved of your once innocent self, or die in a futile rebellion for what you deem a just cause. Suddenly then enemies are characters and not just people, I find the enemy who is just trying to survive and is driven to extreme measures much more interesting than a grunting orc. (Orcs can be interesting in their own right but this has the more tolkien/jackson feel of generic bad guys) For example the enemy who is a father and his wife and kids are being held ransom, is forced to kill you(for whatever reason his ransomers deem you needing to be killed, but you get the point) much more interesting that of mindless pawn for some bigger baddie. it creates conflict this man is going to kill you because he'll go to any lengths to save his family, you don't want to die but to live it means the death of an innocent family.
 
 The whole spreading destruction because our color palate are darker tones annoys me. The most compelling villains are the ones we can relate to in my opinion. Given how most of their titles do draw me in with excellent storytelling, it further proved to disappoint me.  
 
The game itself didn't look that good either. Although, a good game isn't dependent on good graphics, it's just DA's are a bit jarring. And the massive amounts of blood on the characters was funny at first then it kind of just seemed corny. And the lack of variety  of Darkspawn was disappointing as well.
 
This trailer made me a little wary. I hate to harp on the graphics but it look unfinished to me. Maybe I just don't like the art style it's going for. I will give them props though I love that sword/staff thing Hawke wields. And in the original there were sporadic story lines I enjoyed. I'm not trying to totally insult this game and say there was nothing redeeming about it, just that it had too many flaws for my liking.

I love you Bioware, but Alpha Protocol got you beat at this narrative thing.

I hope this time THEY LET YOU PAUSE AND QUEUE UP YOU PARTY'S ACTIONS !!! Seriously What was with the forced execute every time you chose an action, It ruined the combat in DAO.

I do hope that its the 360 version they are showing in the background cos it looks like crap if you compair it to DA1 on PC.

TELL US ABOUT THE NUMBERS

looking forward to this game but this trailer didnt really do it for me.

Ok, NOW I'm interested. thank you, BioWare.

Story within a story? 
 
Um isn't this exactly what Witcher 2 was doing?

I'd never go hardcore in gaming . It's just me. I only have MW2 and Black ops for my ps3

The in-game Hawke's beard is freaking ridiculous looking.  Just thought I'd point that out.

"I seem to be in the minority that didn't enjoy Dragon Age. I'm an avid fan of the sword and sorcery genre and of Bioware as well, but I thought the storytelling in DA was lackluster. The pacing was rushed, but not in a way to create tension or a sense of urgency. The storyline was generic, and wasn't refreshing in any sense. Oh no! We have an enemy that's ugly looking, doesn't speak our language, and every couple hundred of years gets pissed off and decides to attack us. I'm tired of the antagonist with no motivation and are the embodiment of inherent evil. Give me factions that disagree over cultures, religion, prophecies etc and war breaks out over that. Or a group that wants to take over the lands for some complex motivation like an arch demon basically ransoms the world and selects a group of people/country/faction as the chosen ones through treachery and deceit, and threatens if they don't lay siege to the neighboring country and conquer them he/she will destroy everything. So then the story becomes about the motivations and morality choices of the characters; is it better to exist and live albeit depraved of your once innocent self, or die in a futile rebellion for what you deem a just cause. Suddenly then enemies are characters and not just people, I find the enemy who is just trying to survive and is driven to extreme measures much more interesting than a grunting orc. (Orcs can be interesting in their own right but this has the more tolkien/jackson feel of generic bad guys) For example the enemy who is a father and his wife and kids are being held ransom, is forced to kill you(for whatever reason his ransomers deem you needing to be killed, but you get the point) much more interesting that of mindless pawn for some bigger baddie. it creates conflict this man is going to kill you because he'll go to any lengths to save his family, you don't want to die but to live it means the death of an innocent family.   The whole spreading destruction because our color palate are darker tones annoys me. The most compelling villains are the ones we can relate to in my opinion. Given how most of their titles do draw me in with excellent storytelling, it further proved to disappoint me.    The game itself didn't look that good either. Although, a good game isn't dependent on good graphics, it's just DA's are a bit jarring. And the massive amounts of blood on the characters was funny at first then it kind of just seemed corny. And the lack of variety  of Darkspawn was disappointing as well.  This trailer made me a little wary. I hate to harp on the graphics but it look unfinished to me. Maybe I just don't like the art style it's going for. I will give them props though I love that sword/staff thing Hawke wields. And in the original there were sporadic story lines I enjoyed. I'm not trying to totally insult this game and say there was nothing redeeming about it, just that it had too many flaws for my liking. "

With the framed narrative and long timeline, I sort of got an Assassin's Creed 2 impression.
 
Not that it's a bad thing. I think Ubisoft pulled it off in a great way, and hopefully BioWare will live up to their own expectations. For me, all of BioWare's games have had decent but too-predictable narratives. Let's hope this new direction is a good one.

As far as a game concept in itself, I like it, but I understand why some people are seeing this as using the Mass Effect framework in the Dragon Age universe, with the focus on a single legendary character of a more focused origin.